


Fish Out of Water

by teicakes



Series: That Fucky Mer AU [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Fluff, Human Shiro (Voltron), Implied Mpreg, M/M, Omega Shiro (Voltron), Other, Roommates, honestly I don't know how to tag anything that isn't a kink, mermaid au, octopus kolivan, seahorse keith, shark ulaz, with porn incoming in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:07:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teicakes/pseuds/teicakes
Summary: Uncertainty keeps setting in deeper. For Shiro it's the success of his coupling with Ulaz, and everything that may entail. For Keith it's the safety of a home he once thought impenetrable. Neither is sure what the next few months hold and where they'll be, but one thing's now certain.They're going to be roommates. And there's a whole ocean of unknown surrounding human-menfolk cohabitation.
Relationships: Keith/Kolivan (Voltron), Shiro/Ulaz (Voltron), may add new pairings later ;)
Series: That Fucky Mer AU [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/919503
Comments: 81
Kudos: 190





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I love how in January I was all "I can bang this out quickly and have the fic following the same timeline as real life" and then suddenly I black out and wake up and it's almost March. Funny how that is xD
> 
> But we're finally at what I've been itching to delve into since this became a series and getting into all the little plot bunny nuggets I've been sitting on for over a year now. Even if the starting chapter's a little rough (honestly I might come back and edit it later), hope you guys enjoy the ride!

Shiro was, by all extents and purposes, running on autopilot and coffee fumes. 

The flight back home had been an absolute nightmare. The first flight from Narita hadn’t been that bad, the airport had been the same as always, but  _ god.  _ The connection states side.  _ Four hours of delays _ thanks to a freak storm that’d hit the coast. Even if it wasn’t enough to cancel flights outright, it had definitely been enough to overwhelm the de-icing crews. And of course, because that had to happen after the flight boarded, meant they’d had to sit on the tarmac for all that delay, in those cramped buckets of seats. 

They’d run out of coffee and tea by hour three of the wait. And that, combined with the complete and utter hit of jetlag walloping him right now was enough confusion to have him staring blankly into space at the luggage carousel, thinking about almost nothing as his bag circled past him thrice over. 

Thank god Hunk and Lance had offered to pick him up. At the rate he’d been moving, he would have been there for another twenty minutes before he realized he could leave. 

Of course, he wasn’t going to hear the end of it, but right now at least he was enjoying catching up, even if his brain was working with all the processing power of a calculator.

“Soooo,” Lance says, turned around in his seat to grin back at Shiro, “Hunk and I hosted Christmas dinner for the first time ever. Gotta say, think it went pretty well, minus maybe the whole dessert fiasco that happened.”

“ _ Lance. _ I wouldn’t call both our moms insisting they bring our favourite desserts a ‘fiasco’. Maybe a bump, but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing. My mom even asked your mom for her flan recipe after.”

“You had both families over?”

“Yeah,” Hunk chuckles from behind the wheel. “Eighteen people, but we managed it, thanks a lot to a bunch of aunties helping us out in the kitchen and with the kids. Was definitely a bit more than we expected, but… we figured, well… if it might become an eventual reality, we might as well have a bit of practice now.”

“You make it sound like it might not happen.” The pout is evident in Lance’s voice, even with Shiro’s vision blurring in and out of focus with lack of sleep. “It’s gonna happen Hunk, it’s just a matter of time. It’s not like you wanna rush these types of things.”

“I know, I know. Doesn’t mean I’m not still waiting.” He gives Lance’s shoulder a playful punch as the Beta swings around in his seat, yanking his phone out of his jacket pocket. Ten seconds later Shiro gets a text.

_ Veronica called dibs on the family ring _ . _ Wants Nana’s cookbook for it, but you know how much Hunk loves that!  _

Shiro can’t help the small puff of a laugh that leaves him. Of course Veronica was using this to her advantage, even though her and her partner were nowhere closer to seriously popping the question than Lance and Hunk. If he was being honest he had no idea how those two had been together for so long and  _ not _ considered it sooner, but then again, he only knew as much as Lance and Hunk told him. 

Hunk’s eyes meet Shiro’s in the rearview mirror. “What about you though Shiro? How was the trip? You and your family get up to anything interesting?”

Shiro racks his brains for a second. “.... not a lot? I mean, it’s a lot, but nothing too crazy at the same time? Mainly just all the usual New Year’s traditions. Went to the local shrine at midnight, made our first prayers, picked up fortunes. Dad had me and Ryou help clean up the house and replace some patio tiles that cracked. Mom made a ton of food like she usually does… this year’s  _ osechi ryori _ was nuts. Ryou helped more with that though, I just-”

“-did dishes and cleanup?”

“Pretty much,” he sighs. Lance and Hunk knew him too well. “Cleary Ryou got all the cooking ability between the two of us. You should have seen him making noodles Hunk… he’s almost better than mom now.”

“That good huh? Might just have to have  _ him _ teach me now instead of her. How is he by the way?”

“Pretty good,” he shrugs. As close as he’d been with his twin when they were younger, they’d started drifting as university took them to different places. Sure, he still had a good hour long call with Ryou every few weeks to catch up and work out some of those feelings you only could with your identical brother, but they definitely didn’t feel the need to be connected at the hip. “Been receiving a few bonuses and promotions at his company the past few months. He’s actually going to shadow a few offices here in the states for a month or two this year. There’s even one just a few hours up the coast from us.”

“ _Ryou’s gonna be states side again? Duuude!_ ” Lance’s eyes are sparkling in what Shiro can only think of as eight-cups-of-coffee-and-a-reasonable-sleep kind of way. “Tell me he’s gonna come down to visit you! It’s been way too long since we last got to see your bro! Gotta see how your better half is getting along.”

“I really wish you didn’t phrase it that way-”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”

“If it helps, he calls you that to Ryou too,” says Hunk.

Lance shoots Shiro a wink. “It’s a good joke, what can I say? So, when do you think he might be coming out? Hunk and I are totally down to host a dinner or something, it’s always fun when he comes to town. The two of you always wind up joshing each other, he gets you more out of your shell than anyone. Remember that time he tried tugging your shirt off to prove you had more abs than him?”

Shiro tugs the hem of his shirt down, other hand wrapping his coat closer around himself. “Uh… yeah… Hopefully he doesn’t do that again.”

“Aw, it wasn’t that bad! I’d  _ kill _ for a sibling that hyped me up like him.”

“Trust me, he doesn’t always-”

“And don’t even get me started on that twin telepathy thing you guys can do, I swear to god that time where you both-”

“So.” Hunk cuts in over Lance’s babbling. “Ryou coming to visit. He give you any idea of when he might make it down?” Hunk shoots him an eye roll through the mirror, as if apologizing for the fact he couldn’t smooch Lance quiet right now. 

“Spring,” Shiro smiles tiredly

“Nice! Well, with any luck he’ll be here when the cherry trees at the botanical gardens are blossoming. We could take him there and then also show him our new place.” 

“And bring him to that new restaurant that opened up in town! And then hit up that bar he loves and-”

But Shiro’s already zoned out, Lance’s excited babbling fading to a distant hum as he cautiously cups his middle. As much as he’d love a visit from his brother, it couldn’t come at a worse time. By that point… well… he could be in a heck of a different place three months from now.

It’s already been two months. Two months since he and Ulaz had first met. Two months since they’d started trying. Two months since he’d taken test after test, hoping for some sign that the eggs had taken or not. And maybe, in some ways, it finally had. 

Shiro hadn’t had his December heat.

He’d been prepared for it, had pills packed, ready in case one hit in the middle of visiting his family for New Year’s, but it hadn’t come. That in itself wasn’t the biggest surprise, he and Ryou had always been somewhat irregular, with cycles that could fluctuate two weeks early to two weeks late. But the fact that his hadn’t come, when his twin’s had… That’d had Shiro all kinds of uneasy. Usually they both always started within days of each other, their cycles remaining somewhat synched even after they moved apart. As soon as Ryou’s had hit the day after New Year’s he’d been on edge, wondering whether his would come too.

And then there’d been the flight. It could have been his imagination, but he swore, halfway across the pacific ocean, he’d felt something move. Something he couldn’t quite shrug off as gas. For the most part up until now he’d felt nothing except the subtle weight of the two eggs inside him and the occasional shift and roll only when he moved. 

Shiro slips a hand beneath his shirt, just as Hunk turns off for the marina.  _ Was it just him, or was his stomach softer than before? _ It could just be all the noodles and sweets and drinks he’d had this holiday, but after what’d happened to him on the plane he wasn’t quite sure. Still… nothing had happened in the seven hours since, nothing more exciting than a stomach gurgle.  _ Should he be feeling anything by now? _ Ulaz hadn’t exactly been the most detailed with merfolk development timelines aside from the six months estimate, and although Shiro tried and tried to look up details on shark reproduction, he found painfully little aside from gestation periods and some details he’d rather not think about. 

At least Ulaz had wholey shot down his fears that the pups would try to eat each other inside of him. But that didn’t make the past week and a half apart any easier. As patient as they were trying to be, Shiro knew they were both getting anxious. How long did they have to wait until they knew for sure if he was going to bear fruit? And if it turned out he wasn’t… would it be because of him? It was all so much easier to face when they were together, where he could stop these stupid trains of thought early in their tracks by talking to Ulaz. But when they were apart, when Shiro’d been alone, halfway across the world with parents he couldn’t quite say would be entirely pleased to hear he’d been knocked up before marriage, those kinds of thoughts took over. 

Shiro strokes a thumb above his navel, just barely feeling the curve of an egg beneath it. He really can’t wait to see Ulaz again, to actually talk instead of sending short voice messages and receiving garbled texts from Ulaz’s end. Hopefully he’d be there tomorrow, bright and early to welcome him home. He sighs, kneading his stomach a little now, trying to think forwards to it. The welcome back kiss and the long, drawn out catching up, either splayed on his deck or in the tub. Maybe he’d try his hand at making candied sardines or salmon konbu rolls again for him after all the practice he’d had back home. Not to mention the  _ omiyage _ he’d brought back just for Ulaz along with-

“Oh, right,” he groans, forcing himself to move from the comfort of Hunk and Lance’s backseat and dig through his bag as they pull up. “I almost forgot the souvenirs for you guys.”

“Aww Shiro, you know you don’t have to! Not that we don’t enjoy them, but-”

“Did you find them?!” Lance pipes up.

“Yes,” Shiro sighs, passing Lance the green and orange box as Hunk stares at him, violently distraught. “I found the cantaloupe kitkats you like. Seriously though, I don’t get why you keep asking me to get them when I could be buying you-”

“Oh hell no! You’re not bringing those into our house Lance!”

“Yes I am, they’re delicious!”

“No they’re not, and they’re going right back with Shiro before yo-  _ DON’T TRY AND FEED ME ONE!” _

“....And I got you sake and your favourite stock mixes,” Shiro adds quickly, dumping them on the backseat and making a speedy exit from the car before he gets roped up in all this. “Thanks again guys, I appreciate it! See you soon!”

“Shiro, you get back here and take these back or I swear to g-”

Shiro slams the rear door as and grabs his bag as fast as he can, retreating down the gangplank at record speed. The sounds of the motor and Lance trying to shove a highlighter-orange stick of chocolate in Hunk’s face fade as he stumbles over to the marina gate, and by the time he’s on the gangplank, the noises fade entirely. He makes it to the dock, feet touching worn wood, and stops. 

_ Waves… _ Wind rustling through cables and sails, the gentle clink and chime of buoys bumping and brackets shifting in the night. Gold light scatters over the dark water, glinting like fish scales in the waves. Shiro closes his eyes and breathes in, letting the clean tang of crisp salt air flow through him. If he listens,  _ really listens _ , he can hear the faint jingle of his own windchimes. It’s so familiar, so  _ right _ , he nearly sinks to his knees right where he stands, eyes watering with relief. 

_ Home _ . He’s finally home. 

He makes his way down the dock slowly, careful not to trip over the uneven boards or drop the keys he struggles to fish out of his pockets. He can feel the final traces of travel weight leaving him as he crosses the short ramp to his door, knees wobbling in exhaustion and gratefulness at being home. He’ll get in, check if Ulaz is there… but if he’s being entirely realistic, there’s no reason he would be. Honestly, probably better off just leaving some kind of sign like his luggage in sight of the inner garden and dragging himself up the stairs to bed as fast as he can. 

_ God… _ bed… Shiro’s almost emotional at the very thought of it as he lets himself in. As much as sleeping on futons took him back, there was something to be said for eight inches of memory foam ready to take him off to dreamland. He’s dying to collapse into it as soon as he’s upstairs, but he really should brush his teeth first. He dumps his luggage in a heap in the dark foyer, not even bothering to crack a light as he shucks off his coat and dials up the thermostat a few notches. 

Teeth, then bed. Thank god he knows where he packed his toiletries.

Shiro’s just about to unzip the outer pocket of his suitcase when he hears it. A rustling, completely separate from the usual white noise of waves lapping against his house. He freezes, counting down the seconds until he can just chalk it up to an over-exhausted imagination, when it happens again. Longer and louder, and accompanied by clinking and something that sounds like a damp mop falling to the floor. 

Shiro freezes. It… it could be Ulaz. Except… why would Ulaz be here, alone, at 2 am? And why would he be moving around without the lights on, or going through his things? If anything, at this hour Ulaz would be upstairs, maybe refilling the tub with warmer water, but down here? In what sounds like the dining room or-

Shiro suppresses a squeak as light suddenly floods the corner of the living room he can see, bathing the floor in sterile yellow. That wasn’t an overhead light. It was the fridge, the fridge light lighting up the main floor, meaning whoever it was was in his kitchen right now.  _ Maybe… maybe Ulaz was just hungry.  _ Or… or maybe he wanted to store a catch for Shiro in there. 

A catch… that he got in the middle of the night. Hours later than any time Shiro’d ever known him to go out hunting. 

A hand flies up to cover his mouth as a shadow invades the beam of light, casting half the living room back into darkness and giving him an inkling of the intruder’s identity. 

Broad shoulders. Broader than Ulaz’s, with a bulk to the torso completely different to that of his mate’s. Squarer. Thicker, like a linebacker instead of Ulaz’s svelte frame. And the head… one glance tells Shiro more than enough that whoever…  _ whatever… _ is in his house is  _ definitely  _ not Ulaz. 

_ Someone’s inside. _ Someone who isn’t Ulaz, or anyone with a key to his place. 

An intruder. 

In another state, Shiro might have stepped outside and called the cops. In another, less exhausted state, he might have ran to Hunk and Lance for backup, either to deal with this intruder head on or just bring him back to their place. But this was a Shiro who’d been awake for the better part of twenty-six hours, desperate to enjoy the comforts of home again, and he was dealing with things however his most neanderthal instincts told him to. 

Meaning that brandishing an umbrella and a can of Raid, Shiro charges into the living room and flicks the lights on to face the trespasser. He’s ready for a squatter, or maybe a drunk asshole teen who’d managed to figure out a way into his place. 

What he’s not ready for, is a mass of blue and red tentacles, dripping and clinging to his floor and counter, or the deeply alien face in the middle of them all. And the intruder clearly isn’t either, because as soon as Shiro turns the light on they’ve swiveled their body around unnaturally so, ears and arms and tentacles swelling and flaring larger as Shiro lets out a scream. 

The tentacle… monster lets out a yell of its own, deep and raspy, joined with the groan and crack of the plastic food tray of Shiro’s fridge snapping and ripping free. Bottles come smashing down out of it, raining bits of glass and sauce everywhere as Shiro screams louder and starts spraying for all he’s worth, popping the umbrella for some,  _ any _ , level of protection from the monster man in his house. 

Something else crashes to the floor as the octopus man jumps back from the open umbrella that Shiro just barely recognizes as his toaster, his tentacled and human arms dragging him up Shiro’s cabinets. His dark golden eyes are wild, markings on his body glowing bright  _ blue _ all of a sudden, entire massive form tensing, writhing, as he stares at Shiro. 

“ _ Kolivan, don’t!” _

Shiro’s knocked forwards as a wet body collides with his back and arms close around him, dragging him back just as the foreign merman’s gut jerks and a spray of noxious black leaves the dark mass of his tentacles. He feels it splash across his cheek as he’s spun around, head pulled away and legs almost swept out from under him. He loses his grip on the bug spray, about to lash out with the umbrella at this new attacker, until he feels that all-too-familiar soft-rough texture of a finger gently wiping his face clean. 

“Shiro! Shiro… are you alright?! It didn’t… It didn’t get anywhere else did it? How do you feel?”

Ulaz is knelt over him, face paler than usual, hair plastered to his scalp it’s still so wet and dripping. One hand cups his face as the other holds his waist, an all too telling squeeze to his side giving away just how shaken Ulaz is. 

“U-Ulaz?” He reaches up, arm wrapping around the other’s neck in the closest thing he can manage to a hug like this. The earlier longing to see him’s fallen flat, like the perfect pancake gone wrong on the flip. “Why are you here… what’s happening?”

“That can wait for right now, how do you feel? Is there any tingling? Any nausea?”

Shiro’s pulse is mounting in time with Ulaz’s questions. Something’s wrong. Something’s terribly and utterly wrong for Ulaz to be panicking like this and if the intruder wasn’t enough to freak him out this definitely is. 

“Ulaz, why are you asking? What’s going on?  _ What’s happening to me? _ ”

“I’m not sure, how much got onto you? How well do humans resist to being poisoned? Can yo-”

“He’ll be alright Ulaz.” 

Shiro twists in Ulaz’s arms, eyes bulging out at the sight of another strange merman clambering out of the water, fins sinking into his body as Shiro stares, blood almost ready to jump out of his skin. 

“Kolivan can’t shoot venom that far, and it definitely doesn’t look like that. If anything, I’m quite sure all that happened is that your little catch caught him off-guard enough to make him ink.”

“I-ink?” Shiro stammers.

“ _ Ink _ ,” Ulaz breathes, and Shiro can feel his body relax at the word, even though his is still trapped in high alert mode. “Ink. Just ink. Thank goodness. If it was venom I don’t know what I’d do.”

“ _ Venom?!” _ There’s a sick lurch in Shiro stomach as he sits bolt upright, looking from the mess to Ulaz to the two other mermen in his house. “Ulaz… what’s going on? Why are you talking about venom and why-” he gestures wildly with the tip of his umbrella, the octopus man shrinking back into the counters once again, “ _ are there strange merpeople in my house?!!”  _

For good measure, he also waves the umbrella at the other one too, albeit with less pronounced results. Rather than back away, he simply stays out on the patio, watching the scene inside with a look of cautious interest. Ulaz however, is looking at Shiro with all the guilt of a puppy caught with food all over his face.

“I’m sorry Shiro,” he says, ears flat, gaze lowered as he gently works the umbrella out of his grip. “I tried to contact you earlier but the phone you left wasn’t working. I’d never intended for Kolivan to go any further than your garden, let alone enter your home, but I became distracted and it seems in that time some of your possessions caught his eye. As you can see, that led to, well...” he waves an arm at the octopus man, still very much glued up against the counter like a throw-and-stick toy.

Initial fear somewhat quelled, Shiro can finally takes a better look at him. Two great big cat-like earfins stick out from the top of his head, and a massive swath of pale grey hair drapes over his shoulders and chest in thick, dripping ropes. Like Ulaz in his natural form, any of his human attributes stop at the waist, ending abruptly at the mass of tentacles that shimmer and move with unsettling autonomy. Stuck to a good half of them are all manner of shiny objects. His fruit bowl, half a dozen spoons and knives, his coffee bodum, a block of butter still in foil…

The ridiculousness of  _ that _ is what breaks him. “You… you broke into my house to steal butter.  _ Butter. _ And my toaster.” The more he looks, the crazier this all seems, as if all of this is some kind of fever dream brought on by sheer lack of sleep. If the roll of tin foil isn’t enough, the sheer cartoonishness of an octopus holding all manner of kitchen utensils sure is. “This isn’t real… A merman just broke into my house to make toast.”

“Shiro… are you alright?” Ulaz holds him a little closer as Shiro continues to space out at the mess of his kitchen floor. He’s pretty sure he’s spotted a whisk in there, and… oh god… is that his coffee grinder on the floor too?

“My coffee… he threw my grinder on the ground. He was going to take my bodum… _my bodum_ … the one thing I can’t function without in the morning...” Let alone right now, with as dizzy and heavy-lidded as he feels right now.

“Kolivan.” The other merman on the patio shoots the octopus a look. “Put those things back where you found them, you’re stressing Ulaz’s mate.”

“But-” the octopus frowns. 

“You  _ came here _ for  _ his _ aid. If you want it, then you’re best off  _ not _ making this first impression any worse than it already is. And see if there’s a way to clean up your mess. I doubt it will wash away here like it normally does.”

Kolivan’s great cat-like ear fins sag, but he drops Shiro’s cutlery and appliances onto the counter. In what he can only describe as an out of body experience, Shiro watches Kolivan peel himself sucker by sucker off the cabinets, carefully easing himself back down onto the floor. When he moves to walk, it’s like a cloud of smoke animated by the most lucid of artists, arms jutting and thrusting out erratically before coiling back underneath him. The entire thing is utterly unsettling, and yet impossible to look away from. 

The other merman takes notice. 

“Is he… alright?” he asks, pointing at Shiro staring off into middle distance. 

“I’m…” he starts, but Kolivan’s just found the drain stopper and is staring at it like it’s a lost temple artifact. 

“I’ll be alright,” Ulaz soothes, gently directing Shiro’s gaze back to himself. “I’ll make sure everything is properly cleaned afterwards, but I think right now I’m sorely due to explain myself.”

“Yeah… yeah, that sounds about right.” Shiro shakes his head, trying to sit up a bit straighter. “If you could start with  _ why _ you brought a bunch of your friends here that’d be great. They’re not… you haven’t brought them here before, have you?” 

The image of his very expensive desktop at the bottom of the harbor is rapidly taking over his brain, along with a rising sense of dread. 

“Certainly not,” Ulaz says, nose wrinkling with the words. “While I may talk of you and your house often, it isn’t something I actively advertise to others.”

“He’s right you know.” The merman crouches down beside them, careful not to broach the bubble of Shiro and Ulaz. “This is the first time Ulaz has let us anywhere close to here, let alone even considered it.” Despite never meeting him before today, he smiles with the same kind of familiarity his parents’ ancient neighbour gives him whenever he’s back home. “I’m sorry our first meeting had to happen this way. Believe me, Ulaz would never have planned it to be like this.”

“Th-thanks?” He stammers, pulling a little closer to Ulaz, but not recoiling outright. There’s something about the air this one gives off that has him feeling like he knows him, or at least, that  _ he _ knows Shiro. “That… that’s nice, but it doesn’t exactly answer any questions.”

“Right.” Ulaz takes both his hands in one of his, rubbing his cheek and forehead up against Shiro’s own. “I’m so sorry, I never meant to frighten you like this. I didn’t think you’d be back until tomorrow. The information you gave me said you were leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Time zones,” Shiro sighs, sinking into the welcome warmth of Ulaz’s skin on his own. Dear god he’d missed this feeling so much. “I’ll explain it to you later, but please... explain all this?”

Ulaz straightens up, no longer nuzzling him but holding him close all the same. “Yes, well… this here is Thace. I think I’ve mentioned him to you a few times and I’ve certainly talked to him about you quite a bit.” Thace gives him another familial grin and a small wave. “And the one who invaded your kitchen  _ despite _ being told otherwise is Kolivan. He’s the reason I brought them both here. Or, well… brought  _ all _ of them here.”

_ “All _ … as in… there’s  _ more?” _ Shiro spins around, looking for another mass of tentacles to pop out from behind the couch or out of the closet. 

“Two… actually…” Ulaz winces. “They’re still waiting in the water. They’re both far more wary of humans than myself, or Thace.”

“You brought  _ four _ merpeople here?  _ Here? _ ”

Ulaz’s ears droop. “Yes… In retrospect, I realize it really should have only been two, but Kolivan was rather insistant. You see Shiro, his mate’s found themselves in quite a bit of trouble recently. There’s been fighting, and several close calls, and it’s likely to only get worse until spring.”

“And you… you figured that they’d just… not fight if they came here? Is this like… a merfolk version of Scared Straight? Where you freak them out enough with human stuff that they’ll never act up again? Make them believe that if they keep fighting they’ll be caught and experimented on?”

Ulaz gapes at him. “That… that is something humans do?” The sheer look of terror on his face is enough to have Shiro backpedaling. 

“Not… not exactly. I mean,  _ yes _ , but mainly only a TV show. I don’t know if it’s actually done outside of reality TV and even if not I don’t really know how well it actually works or if it’s even effective or ethical or-”

Thace clears his throat, interrupting Shiro’s babbling. “I think that we’re moving away from the main point right now. Shiro wanted to know  _ why _ we’re here, perhaps it’s best if he actually meets Keith while we explain?”

“And you actually trust this human?” Kolivan glowers from where he’s prodding a roll of paper towel against the dark stain on Shiro’s kitchen floor. “You don’t even know him.”

“Maybe not, but yes, yes I do trust him,” Thace says, slowly rising to his feet and making his way back towards the patio. “He’s kept Ulaz a secret from his human compatriots for two months now. He was not only willing, but he  _ wanted _ to breed with Ulaz, even after he learned about the differences between our two species. Besides,” he kneels down at the water’s edge, rapping his knuckles against the wood, “there’s no way at all he’ll be able to do the unthinkable to Keith. According to Ulaz, the only gametes he could hope to put in him are weaker versions of what Keith himself produces.”

Shiro lets out a sputtering noise. “Are you… are you seriously implying that I’d try and have sex with this Keith, let alone try and kn-  _ OH MY GOD!” _

Tentacles, even larger than Kolivan’s, burst from the water, spreading wide and latching onto edges left and right. Shiro watches, frozen,  _ terrified,  _ as one manages to drag a massive planter pot across the deck that’d taken the combined efforts of Hunk, Lance, and himself to move, as a massive dark hood breaks the surface.

“Oh no no no no no,” Shiro says, backing away from the _massive_ tentacled merman filling his back patio, nearly crawling into Kolivan’s many limbs before recoiling in shock. “ _No_. Just, _NO._ I’m not… I can’t… _I can’t!_ Ulaz, you know how I feel about tentacles but _this?_ _Keith?”_ His mouth is dry, a dozen terrifying images from Ryou’s porn stash that had haunted him since fourteen flooding his brain. _And they thought...?_

“Shiro…” Ulaz is wrapping an arm around his side, carefully guiding him away from Kolivan and back towards the rug before the sliding glass door. “That… that isn’t Keith. That’s Antok, Kolivan’s closest friend. He’s only here as protection and a means of cover. Keith is-”

And that’s when Shiro finally spots him. He’d been so focused on the enormous thing that was Antok he hadn’t even realized someone else had surfaced with all those tentacles. Someone small, unassuming, with dark feathery hair clinging to their pale violet ears and face. Unlike Ulaz and the others he had dark pupils, giving him an even more human appearance than the others, now nervously scanning the garden’s interior. 

“He’s so small…” it comes out of his mouth before he can stop it. Both sets of eyes from the newly emerged mermen snap onto him. This Keith draws back to hide behind the lip of the dock, whereas Antok outright recoils backwards into the trellis. Thace lets out a low chuckle. 

“Yes, I suppose he is a lot smaller than the rest of us, but that’s entirely due to species.”

“He’s a seahorse.” Shiro nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of Kolivan’s voice beside his ear. The octopi’s shuffled over behind him, arms crossed, face fixed in a scowl at Shiro. “Do you have any idea what that means?”

Shiro eyes the merman carefully, “Not… really? That he’s… less dangerous?”

The corner of Kolivan’s lip draws up, whether in disgust or incredulity Shiro has no idea. “Perhaps to some. What it truly means is he’s incredibly rare.  _ Valuable _ . There’s far more than a few merfolk interested in having their way with him.”

Something about that wording hits him. ‘ _ His partner is extremely valuable as a reproductive mate, he would be foolish to allow someone else to take them from him.’ _ The words Ulaz had said so long ago, the words that had led into Shiro’s choice to follow down this road. Kolivan and Keith… they were an exclusive couple. An exclusive couple in a culture where partners were the exception, not the norm, and the norm was spreading your seed as far as you could with little care for the consequences, like the middle ages, back when pilfering villages and mates still happened. And Keith… Shiro stares, trying to spot some type of sign. If Keith was the same as his animal counterpart, that meant he’d be on the receiving end. And if what Kolivan was implying were true, he could wind up in a much worse spot than the grossest porn he’d ever stumbled upon. 

Suddenly, he’s a whole lot less upset over the ink stain in his kitchen and tentacle hentai protagonists in his house. It’s not some whim, or Ulaz succumbing to peer pressure causing all this, but someone in trouble, nearing the end of their rope for solutions.

“I… I think I get it.” He stares up at Kolivan, and for the first time it's not with an air of apprehension. “Something’s going on in the ocean, something that has people fighting and trying to take him. He’s not safe right now, that’s why you came here. He’s in danger.”

The octopus studies him in silence, mouth no longer twisted into a scowl. His eyes flick up and down Shiro’s person, as if searching for some crack or lining that would give away a false veneer. It lasts longer than comfortable, but at long last Kolivan speaks, tone softer than before. 

“You are correct.”

That small admission, that faint showing of exhaustion on his features has him blinking back in surprise. 

“Then… that means…” Shiro turns, looking to Ulaz now. “The reason why you brought them here was him. You need a place that’s safe for him lie low.”

Ulaz nods, ears still pulled back bashfully. “Kolivan was asking for safe places to hide him, and before I knew it I was suggesting here.” He looks absolutely guilt ridden, as if the full train of events tonight was wholly his for the blame. Which yes… maybe it was, but at the same time, the motivation behind it was anything but bad. 

“You wanted to do the right thing, didn’t you? And here seemed the most out of the way?”

Ulaz nods, bowing his head until his forehead touches Shiro’s. Before he knows it, Shiro’s reaching out, taking both Ulaz’s cheeks in hand and gently rubbing his head against his.

“I know I sounded upset earlier, I was definitely startled… but I’m not mad. You were just trying to help.”

Ulaz hums, ears still low, but leaning into his touch all the same. “I wouldn’t let them decide anything without your final say, but I thought perhaps they could look at it to see if it would be suitable. I meant to tell you before you came back, but I wasn’t sure how much was safe to put in one of those cellular text messages. I spent ages trying to craft something suitably vague but specific, but by the time I’d finally thought it, the thing started beeping and the screen went black.” He pulls back, face pulled into a frown. “I’m sorry Shiro, I think it may have broken.”

Shiro blinks, unsure how the hell his old beater of a smartphone could get any more broken than it already was, or suddenly beep and die. 

“ _ Crap _ ,” he groans, ready to slap himself in the face because  _ of course _ he should have shown Ulaz where the charger was. “It ran out of batteries. That would explain why you didn’t reply to anything earlier today.” 

“I… I do not understand. These… batteries? They do not mean it’s broken?”

“It’s fine,” he says, patting Ulaz on the cheek for good measure. “You didn’t break it. I’ll explain batteries to you, just… another time. When I’m not still recovering from your friends scaring me half to death.”

Ulaz lets out a mortified croak as Kolivan begins to shuffle sideways. 

“Shhh, it’s an expression,” Shiro says tiredly, patting Ulaz more. “I’m alright, I’m alright, I’m not going anywhere.” Still, it doesn’t keep Ulaz from hugging him tighter, something Shiro’s body would be singing at if he wasn’t so doggone exhausted and delirious right now. Now that all the adrenaline’s gone, the last of his fumes are barely holding him along right now. He’s trying to mentally prepare himself to climb the stairs, willpower steadily melting away as he sinks into Ulaz’s chest with each passing second. 

“Shiro,” Ulaz jostles him lightly, and Shiro realizes his eyelids had fluttered shut. “Shiro… about Keith…”

“Oh… right,” he grunts, forcing himself to fight the comfort of Ulaz’s arms and face the gaggle of four mermen on his patio. He’s still a little uneasy over the two squidy ones. As much as he’s fairly sure they wouldn’t try anything, he’s come across enough hentai in life to know where things can head (and that’s one kink he’s not planning to explore any time soon). Thace… Thace seemed nice enough. A bit less wild feeling, more of a conversationalist maybe? He at least seemed to be good at listening and reading a room. Keith though… beyond the fact he was smaller and quiet and in danger… he didn’t really get much else. Thace and Kolivan had done most of the talking outside of Ulaz, he wasn’t even sure what Keith’s voice would sound like. 

But at the same time… from everything he could gather, Keith was a little like him. Some merfolk form of an Omega, trapped in a society 1000 years in the past. Maybe he didn’t know much about him now, but that didn’t mean in the future...

Shiro glances the smallest merman, then back to Kolivan. He’s not sure if it’s the exhaustion in his bones that’s making him feel crazy, but right now he can only reach one conclusion.

“If the rest of the ocean isn’t safe, I don’t think it’s the worst idea?”

Kolivan’s staring at him with an expression Shiro can’t quite place between fear and gratitude, and at this point in the night he’s not even going to try. Beside him, still mostly obscured by tentacles, Keith’s looking at him with an even more perplexing face, one he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to place even  _ with _ coffee and a good eight hours rest. 

“So… so he can stay?”

“Y-yes?” he says, stammering a bit as he processes what he’s just agreed to. “Maybe just as a trial to start? See if it would even work?”

There’s some motion above Shiro’s head, followed by two dark shapes wrapping around him as Ulaz drapes himself over him “I agree with Shiro. There’s no need to create a permanent arrangement until we know it can work. In the very least, it should afford you some time to seek out alternatives and discourage some of the more aggressive assailants. Shall we say a week perhaps? ”

Several of Kolivan’s arms wrap around what little of Keith Shiro can see, mirroring the hug Ulaz has him in. “A week,” he nods, brows knit tight. “That seems more than fair, considering the events of tonight.”

“We’ll leave you to get him settled then? Perhaps keep to the garden for now, I’m not certain Shiro’s in the right state to establish house rules right this second.” He jostles him, bumping Shiro’s chin back off his own chest where it’d steadily drooped to. “Are you alright?”

“ ‘m just tired,” he sighs, forcing himself to take one more good look at his surprise new house guest. “I’ve been up for almost 24 hours now, I need to get to bed.”

Lips press against Shiro’s forehead, just as Antok and Thace disappear down below the surface. “Yes, maybe that’s for the best. Do you want me to join you?”

Shiro hums drowsily against Ulaz’s shoulder, hoping the merman will get the idea and offer to carry him up to bed. “Yes please.” He’s immediately proven right, although it takes some stumbling and help on his part to help Ulaz make it to his feet. Hopefully Ulaz is in a mood to cuddle tonight, but even if not, he knows they’ll get up to it first thing tomorrow. 

“I was going to ask…” Ulaz says, carefully avoiding the remnants of mess on the floor, “... if there’ve been any developments in the past two weeks, but I realize now might not be the best of times.”

Shiro’s hand goes to his stomach, something that’s grown more and more instinctive as time goes on. “... That might best. There’s things that could be something, or nothing at all, but they’ll still be there in the morning.”

Ulaz bows his head, letting his lips brush over Shiro’s bangs as he dodges around Shiro’s suitcase and towards the stairs. “Then we’ll face them in the morning, along with the rest of them.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, long time no update 😥 I had all the intentions to get this finished and out months ago but, well... pandemic depression hit hard. I won't bore you guys with how it was for me but let's just say a month and a half of being totally isolated really doesn't make you want to be alone with your thoughts for long, even just for writing. 
> 
> I'm good now, staying with some family, but it's taken longer than I've wanted to get back in my writing groove and I'm still dusting off the cobwebs and picking through sparse notes from January like "... how did I ever think this would pace well?" I really wish I'd gotten this out for mermay, but better late than never hopefully!

Ulaz feels heavier than normal, but in a good way. His body sinks into the ground, limbs loose like after a long rest near sea vents. Gravity’s almost too strong, fixing him in place, so much so that when a hand comes up to run through his hair and another cheek presses up against his own he does little else other than hum in acknowledgement. It's not until that cheek turns into lips and the warmth of another body pressing close does he find the will to move his arms, tugging Shiro closer until they’re chest to chest.

“M’morning,” he manages through a sleepy kiss, luxuriating far too much in the comfort that’s Shiro’s mattress.

“Morning,” Shiro smiles, thin morning light illuminating the silhouette of his face. “Someone sure seems to still be groggy today.”

Ulaz lets out another noise, nesting his nose into Shiro’s neck. It produces a small gasp, just like it always does, before Shiro relaxes, baring himself more easily to him and letting out a small chuckle. 

“If I were to say anything, I’d mention how  _ someone else _ appears to be far more alert than usual.” 

Shiro snorts, adjusting himself until he manages to rest his cheek against Ulaz’s crown. “Is that a dig at me today, or a dig at all the other days?”

“I do not know, is it?”

“Ulaz…” Shiro’s voice has that extra twang that means he’s holding back a grin. “Are you really that grumpy I’m more awake than you are right now?”

He’s not, but he’s enjoying where this is headed. “... Maybe.”

Shiro’s cheek puffs up against his brow as his mate pouts. “I thought this was around the time you usually like to get up. I’ve already been up for almost an hour, jetlag has my body thinking it’s already late afternoon. Not that I don’t  _ want _ to sleep more, I do… but…” his voice trails off, fingers stroking thoughtfully through Ulaz’s hair. “You wanna cuddle in the bath a bit?”

Ulaz pulls back, body alert and ready. He can feel that itchiness in his skin that means he’s let himself start to dry out, his tail’s positively aching for some moisture despite the moistened cloth Shiro had draped over it last night. 

“Absolutely.”

It takes them less than two minutes to travel the twenty steps between Shiro’s bed and the bathroom, a well practiced dance they’d fallen into weeks ago, or a “wheelbarrowing” as Shiro liked to call it. Within seconds of his hands touching the cool tiling Ulaz has already steered them towards the tub and is hoisting himself up over the lip, slipping in with an undignified squeak that neither of them chooses to mention. He works the knobs, first cold, then hot as he rushes to work the plug into place. A moan escapes him as water splashes over his fins. He never quite realizes how parched he is until he’s submerged once again, enough that he finds himself spreading as much of his person across the tub’s bottom, soaking up every last drop he can. It won’t kill him, drying out like this, but it certainly does make him appreciate the simple things in life. 

“Enjoying yourself?” Shiro’s knelt down beside him, eyes crinkling at the corners as he takes in the sight of Ulaz soaking his skin. “You know, you’re always more than welcome to move to the bath after I fall asleep at night. I know you don’t for me, but I hate for you to be making yourself uncomfortable just for that.”

“It’s not uncomfortable, and I wanted to.” He tips back his head, letting Shiro pour a bowlful of water over his face before starting to work down his shoulders and chest. He always enjoys the act, the way Shiro takes his time to make sure he’s completely wetted before going about his own business, today even more so. There’s an extra attention to detail, Shiro’s other hand also working in tandem to carefully sluice water over every inch. “We hadn’t seen each other for nearly two weeks. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the longest-”

“Longest we’ve ever been apart, yeah.” Shiro works lower now, hand stroking over Ulaz’s hips. “I don’t know about you, but it was harder than I thought it’d be. There were times when I just wanted to hear your voice, or just spend an hour or two with you instead of my family.”

Ulaz nods, watching Shiro with careful focus. Although neither of them had been alone while apart, there had still been that feeling, that inkling that not everything was there, like a rock out of place or a tooth fallen out. Thace was and had always been his closest friend, but there was something about his company that was different from Shiro’s, as though there was a niche reserved for him and him alone. One more than one occasion while apart he’d made his way to Shiro’s bedroom and lain down in the blankets and sheets, simply to let the faint scent of Shiro envelop him. 

“You sent me yours, a few times. It was nice. The messages.” Although he wouldn’t admit it, he’d spent one night going through all of them, playing them one after another as he tried to spell out his own words through buttons too small for his fingers. “I wish you had taught me how to make them too, so I could have done the same.”

“Me too, though I remember it being really complicated on my old phone. If only we weren’t being so careful about my parents finding out about you, we could have just called.”

His ears twick nervously. He trusts Shiro, absolutely, but there are still far too many stories of humans hunting his kind for fame and evidence to blindly trust them all. “And if they did?”

Shiro sighs. “Well… for starters let’s just say they wouldn’t leave me alone if they caught wind I was dating someone, human or not. They’d probably insist I video call you for them to meet you, and if that didn’t work my mom’d probably be trying to book a flight back with me to meet you in person. So that’s uh… probably not in your best interest if you want to stay hidden from other humans.”

“Probably not.” There was always the chance that he’d receive similar receptions to the one from Shiro, but he wasn’t about to take chances willy nilly. “For the time being its for the best. But hiding things from your family, that’s still alright?” He’s learned a good deal about humans over his courtship with Shiro and if there’s one key differentiating factor between them and merfolk it's the lifetime familial bonds they form between chains of parents and children. 

“Mmm, well it’s not being totally honest with them, I’ll admit that much,” Shiro hums. “But there are certain parts of your life you don’t exactly want your family hovering over your shoulder for. Especially dating and  _ especially  _ with my parents.” He lets out a snort as he sluices another bowlful of water over Ulaz’s tail. “I still won’t forget how my mom dragged Ryou’s crush into taking a family picture with us at middle school graduation,  _ ‘just in case for the wedding _ ’. He hid in his room for three days after that.”

“So they’re likely to jeopardize relationships?” he frowns. Involved parents seemed… complicated.

“Nah, they don’t mean anything malicious. They’re just… over-zealous. Which can be really intimidating, especially to early relationships. Pretty sure all the questions they asked my highschool boyfriend probably scared him off, so both Ryou and I tend to keep relationships quiet until we’re sure they’re ready for our parents to talk their ears off. Expression by the way, not a real thing.” As if in condolence he smooths back Ulaz’s hair and kisses his temple. “I’m not doing anything I wouldn’t do for another relationship, just being a bit more careful than usual for your sake. My brother finding out wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but there’s always the chance he’ll squeal to my friends and accidentally out you that way.”

“How long do you plan on keeping me a secret?” It’s crossed his mind once or twice after a few close calls with Shiro’s friends.

“Eh… as long as you want me to really?” Shiro stands up from shutting off the taps and begins to strip. “Honestly I’m fine with not mentioning you to my family, I don’t see them much in the first place. Friends might be a little more tricky but at the same time I’m pretty sure I can manage if it means keeping you safe. So long as they don’t drop by unannounced I’m pretty sure we can manage it and they’ll be none the wise-” He pauses, arms raised above his head in the middle of removing his shirt. “You okay Ulaz?”

The merman’s eyes are firmly fixed on Shiro’s middle, finally exposed for the first time since Shiro’s returned home. It’s hard to discern what differences are there, it's been so long since he’s last seen it. He could swear there’s a little more padding to Shiro’s abdomen now, perhaps a touch more softness, a little more diameter to his waist, but it could also be a trick of the light. His face is maybe a touch rounder now too, his cheeks certainly a little fuller, but he has no idea if that’s any indication in humans. 

“Oh.” Shiro’s hand jumps to his stomach, smoothing over the space Ulaz knows the eggs rest behind. 

“May I?” he asks, reaching out as Shiro steps closer. There’s a nod and then he’s touching, tracing his fingers over the curve of Shiro’s stomach and the subtle hardness beneath. 

“Have they-”

“I don’t know.” Shiro moves closer, leaning into Ulaz’s palm as he swings one leg into the tub. “My heat hasn’t come yet, that’s hopefully a good sign. At least it means my body doesn’t think I’m totally empty, but at the same time…”

“Nothing?”

Shiro shakes his head as he settles down against Ulaz’s front, back to chest. Both their hands rest above his navel. “I really can’t say. It feels… maybe a little bit bigger, but I also ate a lot while at my parents, it could just be fat. As for movement…” he runs his thumb up and down his midline, “I thought maybe I felt something… once or twice… but nothing since. Shouldn’t they-”

“Be moving?” Shiro nods as Ulaz brings his chin to rest on his shoulder. “That I cannot say. I’m not a dam myself, I’m not completely familiar with the entire process, but I do know if successful they should be nearly a third of the way through their development. How is it supposed to be for humans?”

“I’m… I’m not sure if it’s going to be the same,” he says, eyes downcast as he cups his middle. “Everything’s already a bit thrown off with the six months instead of nine… I’ve done a bit of reading… okay a  _ lot  _ of reading,” he groans. “Apparently, for human babies at least, you’re supposed to be able to hear the heartbeat around 6 weeks.”

“And have you?” Ulaz already knows the answer from the shift in mood since they broached the topic, but he has to ask. If Shiro’s been holding onto this alone up until now, he should start shouldering it too.

“ _ No… _ ” There’s a strain in Shiro’s voice, the beginnings of a crack he knows are being held back. “I thought maybe I felt one right before I left, right around the time when I should be, but it was a false alarm.”

“False?”

Shiro shakes his head, pulling Ulaz’s palm lower down his abdomen, below his navel. Beneath his fingers Ulaz can just make out the slight ticking of something. “I thought this was one of them, but it’s not, just my own heartbeat. I...” he looks away, up at the ceiling, fingers knotting into Ulaz’s. “I’ve been trying to see if I can feel another one, get some sense of this actually being real, but so far… so far nothing.”

“Shhhh.” He hugs his mate closer, littering kisses over his jaw. He hates seeing Shiro like this, precious few times it’s happened. The way keeping things locked inside his head seems to distill them, concentrating them further and further until overcast skies are turned to darkest clouds. Two weeks away, keeping this all a secret… he can’t blame Shiro for broaching into these thoughts. 

“There’s still plenty of time,” he soothes, focusing on rubbing Shiro’s sides instead of his middle. “For all we know, they could be taking longer, more like human children. Maybe there’s a simple reason why we can’t feel anything yet. They could still be too small to palpate, or that egg sacs are confounding things.”

“Maybe. Or maybe something happened. Maybe-”

“You did nothing wrong.” Ulaz already knows where this is headed, and he’s not about to let it get there. “There is still plenty of time before we know for certain. Neither of us is particularly experienced, and books will only go so far. From what I know, young aren’t active until later in their development. It’s not later yet. For all we know, it could have been me. Perhaps my waiting too long meant they were no longer viable, even before this all became a possibility.”

“Ulaz…” Shiro tilts his head up, one hand coming to cup the merman’s cheek. “You shouldn’t be saying things like that. We don’t… You shouldn’t blame yourself like that.”

“And neither should you.”

Shiro huffs, digging his shoulders deeper into Ulaz’s chest and letting out a self-deprecating sigh. “Okay, I deserved that.”

“You did.” He can’t help but return the weak smile Shiro gives him at that. “We’re both invested in this. Your failures are just as much mine as mine may be yours. Besides,” he hikes Shiro closer to him, grazing the flats of his teeth against the Omega’s neck in the way that usually soothes him, “didn’t fifteen of the twenty-one sticks you urinated on say there was nothing to worry about?”

A great deal of sputtering and splashing comes from his partner. 

“ _ Ulaz! _ You don’t just-” Shiro smacks his hand back down in the bathwater, flopping back against the merman’s chest. “They’re not called urination sticks they’re pregnancy tests. But…” he glances up, finally meeting Ulaz’s eyes for the first time since he’d joined him in the tub. “I guess you do have a point. Signs are pointing to things being okay, even if they’re only signs.”

“It will all be alright,” he says, nuzzling the top of Shiro’s head. “We’re still in early days. We have time. And if everything doesn’t go to plan, well… there is always the possibility of next season.”

“True…” Shiro traces circles into his skin, finger swiping down lower and lower until it’s winding around his navel. “Maybe I’m just getting worked up over nothing. S’not like I really have any experience in all this…  _ hell _ , I don’t even have any friends who have gone through all this yet, I’ve got no idea what  _ normal  _ for this even is. Maybe feeling like this is natural.”

Ulaz chuckles. “I would be surprised if it wasn’t. Growing something inside you… I don’t believe it's something you can understand until it’s actually happening.”

“ _ Two somethings _ ,” Shiro says, kicking a leg up over the lip of the tub and settling in further down Ulaz’s front. “Twice the unnormal. Man… for as many dumb self-help books as there are out there, you’d really think someone would have written one about having twins already. Or having surrogate twins…” He sighs. “Honestly, what I wouldn’t give for there to be one about merbabies. That’d help calm some worries there.”

Ulaz hums, letting Shiro continue to go on about human things like book tours and Ted Talks. Oftentimes he makes the effort to listen and learn, to ask questions when Shiro elaborates more on the finer facets of human society, but when he treds down paths of thought like this one he simply settles in for the ride, enjoying the journey of Shiro’s voice more than words themselves. 

“Really makes you think…” Shiro slows, water sloshing around his knee, “there  _ has _ to be someone out there who’s fucked a merperson before.”

“It  _ is  _ likely…” says Ulaz. “After all, I doubt we would have evolved to do  _ this-” _ He shifts, letting Shiro fall between his newly formed thighs, “... without good reason. Then again, it could be completely inane.”

“Inane’s good sometimes. Like right now. No real reason why we should stay in here all morning, but I won’t lie…” Shiro stretches out, sliding down Ulaz’s chest until he’s staring back up at him from atop his pectorals, “there’s nothing keeping me from staying in here another hour.”

“Good.” He cards his fingers through Shiro’s locks, his mate finally reentering that same lazy morning state he’d been in before they’d broached the topic of coupling. “I’m more than happy to spend as much of the day with you as you’d like, be it in bath or bed.” 

Shiro raises a cheeky brow to that, to which Ulaz lets out a knowing snort. They’d certainly get to  _ that _ at some point today, he was certain of it. 

“However,” he hums, nudging the tap until it begins to drip water once more. “ At some point we really should make our way downstairs.”

“Mmm, I can wait to eat for another hour, what about you?”

“The same, though I wasn’t speaking about that.”

Shiro lets out a small noise of confusion, twisting around until he’s sideways between Ulaz’s legs. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there is the small matter of a houseguest we shouldn’t ignore.”

Shiro blinks at him, mouth opening and closing until it falls slack with realization. 

“Oh my god…  _ Keith… _ ”

He nods. 

“Fuck.” Shiro makes to sit up, water sloshing about the tub as he begins to look around the room like a hermit crab without a shell. “Fuck I completely forgot about that. Oh man… what do I have to do?  _ What am I supposed to do? _ I mean, the house isn’t exactly set up for guests, I don’t even know what he needs I-”

“Shhhh. It will be fine.” He stops Shiro from swivelling about, forcing him to catch his gaze. “We can work that out with him. In the meantime, I’m sure a good place to start would be with breakfast.”

* * *

He knows he’s being silly. He’s 100% overthinking things, but at the same time, he can’t help but  _ want _ to make a good first impression, or at least, a better second one. Which means he can’t approach Keith this morning without something good, something he’s sure he’ll like, something-

“Shiro, I’m certain this will be fine.”

Shiro snaps out of his spell, glancing up from the plate in front of him and up at Ulaz. The merman’s dressed in a pair of oversized sweatpants he’d bought over a month ago, a mug of steaming dashi broth in his hands. He looks amused, casually reclining against the counter like that, more than happy to watch Shiro try and make a satisfactory breakfast offering for Keith. He’d been wondering what type of food would be appealing to Keith, something that wouldn’t be too unfamiliar, but also something he actually  _ had _ around the house with his fridge still empty from being away. Seaweed snacks seemed too simple, eggs a little too out there (and maybe past it), despite knowing how much Ulaz enjoyed them soft boiled and soaked in tea and soy sauce. No, in the end he’d landed on canned tuna, and because he couldn’t just give  _ a can _ to a guest, he’d gone and complicated things. 

“You’re beginning to think too much about it. I’m sure he’ll like it. After all, the one you made me was quite good.” Ulaz takes a sip of his broth, looking at the food blog worthy tuna melt Shiro’s been painfully arranging for the past five minutes. “I’ll likely grow too cold if you wait too much longer.”

Shiro frowns, scrutinizing the cheese coverage for what feels like the eighteenth time. “But what if he doesn’t like hot food? Or what if his tastes aren’t the same as yours? Are you sure this won’t make him sick?”

“It won’t,” Ulaz says, smiling over the rim of his mug. “And even if it’s not his favourite meal I’m sure he’ll appreciate the effort. You two can always talk about his preferences once you actually speak. That is, if you ever do, considering it seems we will be here rearranging the bread for another hour at least.”

“ _ Ulaz. _ ”

“I kid!” he chuckles, stepping back as Shiro plucks the plate off the counter in defiance. “I appreciate the care you’re taking to make Keith feel comfortable here. All I wish to point out is that at some point you will have to stop preparing and take that first step. That and I believe that point was several minutes ago.”

Shiro gives Ulaz an overdramatic roll of his eyes. Sometimes it was hard to tell if Ulaz was deadpan serious or kidding, but this wasn’t one of them, the merman clearly hiding another grin behind another swig of broth. “Message received, I’ll stop beating around the bush. But before I possibly make a fool of myself, are there any merfolk faux pas I should avoid?”

“You’re not stalling, are you?” Ulaz asks, unlatching the patio door and sliding it open for him. “You’ll be just fine. After all, you’ve been yourself to me and look at what that’s led to. Why should it be any different from Keith?”

Shiro blinks down at the sandwich, the perfectly cut-off crusts and the painstakingly arranged pickle slices. Ulaz had a point. “I don’t know,” he shrugs, almost scrutinizing the thing  _ more _ now because honestly… why  _ had _ he taken so much more time to prepare Keith’s than he had his or Ulaz’s?  _ Especially Ulaz’s.  _ This was their first morning back together in weeks, and even though he’d taken the time to make Ulaz’s favourite drink with ingredients from his trip,  _ shouldn’t he have focused more on Ulaz’s? _ “I guess I just… I’m not sure how I should act around another merperson. With you, yeah, there was a little bit of an awkward phase at the start, but it wasn’t as if we were starting from nothing either. I mean, I flat out dragged you home to have sex with me within an hour of meeting you, that’s definitely putting things in the fast lane.”

“Is that a way of saying you find it easiest to make friends through intercourse? That would be-” Ulaz’s brow wrinkles, now squinting down at his drink and back at Shiro, “... I had the impression humans preferred to be monogamous. Are you implying-”

He silences Ulaz with a kiss on the cheek, waiting on tiptoes until he stills. As much as he appreciated Ulaz’s more rational tendencies, sometimes seeing him get just as worked up as himself over things was what he needed to ground himself. “No, I’m not. Trust me, you don’t have to worry about anything there, I’m definitely not considering anything close to that with him. It’s just, well… we broke the ice that way, so when we actually started getting to know each other there there wasn’t the same tiptoeing around each other until you learn their boundaries. Unlike now...”

“It will be fine.” The warm embrace of Ulaz’s palm wraps around his hip. “You are both new to each other, but if you both make efforts I cannot see it going wrong.”

“Why do you always make such good points?” He takes a deep breath, stretching his neck and psyching himself up. The inside pool’s still, no sign of the other merman. 

“It comes with time, I’m sure you’ll develop the skill soon too. Now, let’s not delay anymore, shall we?”

“Right.” Shiro swallows down the last of nerves and steps out onto the deck. Keith clearly hasn’t surfaced in some time, or at least, hasn’t tried to make any moves out onto the deck itself, the wood’s fully dry. Hopefully he’s still stuck around under the house though, and hopefully was awake. The last thing he wanted to do was startle him first thing. 

“Uh… Keith?” He kneels down at the water’s edge, looking for some sign of a head or tail or something. “Are you up? You want breakfast?” He gives the wood a good few raps and sits down. There’s a stray bubble or two in the far corner of the pool, but otherwise nothing. He tries again, but after several more seconds, still nothing.

He gives Ulaz a look, somewhere he hopes lands closer to confusion than ‘ _ please help me’,  _ but the other seems to get the message. He’s at Shiro’s side in an instant, and before he can actually say anything to him Ulaz’s already bent down and shoved himself face first into the water. There’s some odd noises coming from him, something between a gargle and the low distant notes of a bassoon, and it finally clicks to him that this must be how Ulaz sounds underwater. Maybe it sounds different when actually in the water, but by the time the thought’s crossed his mind and he’s considering trying himself Ulaz’s already surfaced. 

“He’ll be up in a second,” he says, pushing the damp strands of his bangs from his face. “He’s just been getting his bearings this morning now that the light’s finally risen. I don’t think he had much of a chance before.”

“That’s… good.” Shiro’s now racking his brains, trying to remember what the harbour basin looks like, as if he’s even actually been in it. He knows it’s not terribly deep here, and that the pier has an  _ extremely harsh _ no dumping policy, but it’s probably a far cry from what the open ocean is like.  _ Should he… how could he even begin to consider landscaping the seabed under his house? _

“Hey Ulaz,” he starts, hoping to get the merman’s perspective on what the harbour’s like from a fish’s perspective, but is cut off by the sudden appearance of a dark head of hair before him. 

In the light of day he can finally get a good look at him. Last night he’d only gotten a base impression, the size of him compared the massive merman that were Kolitron and Anthon, the darker hair and pupiled eyes. Now though, now he finally gets a sense of  _ Keith _ . His features are smaller, more rounded and delicate to Ulaz’s angular. The patterns on his face are just a whisper of what he’s seen so far on other mermen, slight shifts in purple instead of great blots of colour. Lacy fins jut out from where his ears would be, delicate and transparent unlike Ulaz’s elf-like ones. Aside from that, he could almost mistaken him as human, face and hair tinted cooler by a filter instead of his actual hue. His heart swells a little. Maybe it won’t be as hard as he’s built it up to be. 

Until Keith’s eyes lock onto his and the merman jerks back, drifting several extra inches across the stretch of water until there’s easily an arm’s length and a half between them. 

_Right._ _He was starting from square zero_. 

“Hey…” he says, offering a smile that he hopes doesn’t make Keith any more nervous. “I uh… I hope you slept okay. Sorry I didn’t really introduce myself last night, I was… well I guess you kinda maybe saw I was a little out of it. I didn’t really expect all that just as soon as I got home, and if you add in the fact I barely slept for twenty plus hours well...” he trails off, realizing he’s rambling, Keith keeping a wary eye on him from where he rests. He probably didn’t care at all what Shiro’s trip had been like, at least, not right now. 

“I made this for you.” He sets the plate down at the dock’s edge, pushing it forwards just enough until he’s sure Keith can get a look at it. “It’s tuna, and a few other things humans eat that you might not have tried before. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I didn’t have much else around the house. I asked Ulaz and he thought it was okay, but if you don’t like it let me know and I can try and get you something else.”

Keith gives it a look and Shiro’s momentarily caught up in the way his ear fins flick back at the sight of it. Nowhere as much as Ulaz’s tend to do, more of a minute flap, but it’s a response all the same and he’ll take it as a good sign. Still, Keith doesn’t approach, let alone speak. 

“So…” he glances around, fingers drumming against the deck as he feels the intensity of Keith’s stare on him start to make his spine prickle. It’s like a spyglass, fixated on him, inspecting him so closely he can’t help but feel self-conscious about everything in the moment. “I know this probably is a bit weird for you. It’s weird for me. Like… what would be the chances we’d ever end up sharing the same space like this? It’s got to be like, one in a trillion or something, but then again me and Ulaz meeting were probably also like a one in a billion chance and that probably impacted the probability of this and-”

“I believe what Shiro’s trying to say,” Ulaz interjects, resting a steadying hand over Shiro’s nervous fingers, “is that although this situation is odd for all of us, he’s prepared to make the most of it. Isn’t that right Shiro?”

He gulps, wiping away all the mental math that had begun to rapidly overtake his brain. “Yeah… yeah that’s what I was trying to get at. I guess I’m a little nervous and not sure what to do and-”

He stops, Ulaz’s hand now squeezing his. Even without looking at him, he knows what the other must be mouthing at him. 

_ Breathe. _

_ Right. Ulaz was trying to ground him. _ It didn’t take a mind reader to tell Keith was clearly on edge, carefully watching Shiro’s every move. Keith knew absolutely nothing about him, other than he was in a relationship with Ulaz. Nothing about what he was like as a person, or how he’d respond to having a barely announced stranger in his space. Truth be told, if Lance or Hunk dumped him at a stranger’s house they swore they knew but he’d never heard of before he’d be on edge too until the two of them sorted things out. It was weird, comparing a merperson to a cat, but at the same time there was something about the way he looked at Shiro, the uneasiness he seemed to have towards trust that reminded him so much of the strays he’d feed back in college. He’d had to start slow back then, just like he’d have to now. Give Keith his space, set out he respected his boundaries and would let him make the bigger moves. He could do this.

“Right. Let’s start easy then. I’m Shiro.” He smiles at what he hopes Keith sees as a friendly light.  _ Make him know he’s safe here.  _ “It’s pretty obvious I’m a human, I’m…  _ intimate _ with Ulaz, and we have been for about three months now. All of which I’ve kept him a secret from my friends and family, so if you’re worried about me letting someone know about you, well, hopefully that speaks for itself, but I get it if you’re still a bit wary of me. I mean… if our places were reversed and I was made to stay with Kolitron-”

“ _ Kolivan _ Shiro.”

“Right,” he winces, looking to Keith for a response. “Kolivan. Sorry… not exactly a common name for humans. But in any case, I think I have a bit of an idea of how I’d feel if we were switched. I’m sure he’s nice and all but he’d probably scare me grey for a good few days until I got used to him. So I understand if you’d rather I keep my distance a bit.”

Keith gives Shiro a slow blink he takes as a reply. It’s about all he can get given Keith’s still submerged from the nose down. He won’t lie, it’s a little unnerving being stared at like that.

Shiro scratches his neck. “Okay, I’ll take that as a yes then. I’ll try not to invade your space unless you let me know it’s okay. But I’ll probably still have to keep bringing you food. I don’t really know what the situation is like with the bay and if it has what you eat but I’m guessing there’s not much.”

“It’s a little more than  _ ‘nothing much’ _ , but it is quite a bit muddier than either Keith or I is used too.” As if to punctuate Ulaz’s remark, Keith blows a stream of bubbles.

That sends a pang of worry through him. As much as the bay’s pretty clean for a settled one, he isn’t exactly happy to know it’s probably lower than Keith’s previous living standards. He’s going to have to try and make up for that somehow. 

“I fish relatively regularly for Shiro,” Ulaz says, one arm draped over Shiro’s shoulder. “It shouldn’t be an issue to ensure a catch for you as well. Beyond that I’m sure Shiro will have plenty of human food for you. Have you ever tasted a pickle before? Or mustard?”

“What Ulaz  _ means _ ,” he says, removing the mershark’s arm with a look that says  _ not now _ , “is that I’m happy to give you what you need, whether its fish or food or space. It’s going to be awkward at first, but hopefully we can get past that.”

Keith’s dark pupils flick between him and Ulaz and Shiro has the distinct impression he’s sizing both of them up, looking for the truth in what he said. He really hopes it won’t be, but he’s getting the sense this might be a bit of an uphill battle, which means he needs to give Keith all the control he can. He’s already got the advantage that this is his turf, that Ulaz is with him, that he’s not the one caught between a rock and a hard place, so what can he yield? Shiro’s eyes wander around the inner patio, trying to think of something that’ll offer Keith some type of control. 

“Maybe…” His eyes land on a winter-ravaged pot of basil and the gardening tools beside it.  _ Perfect. _ The second he makes to get up though Keith jerks away, backing up until he’s almost pressed against the trellis at the far end of the pool. 

“Sorry,” he winces, moving to sit back down as fast as he can with a spade and the pot. “I was just thinking, how about this?” He shoves the blade of the spade into the dry soil, leaving the bright green handle standing erect. “I know you’re probably not comfortable being in my space right now, and that you probably don’t want me in yours, so why don’t we have a signal? Leaving this in the pot like this, that means you’re okay with me coming in here. Take it out,” he pulls the spade out, carefully setting it at the pool’s edge, “and it means you don’t want me here. And if I see it like that, it means I should stay in the house. Does that sound alright with you?” 

The next ten seconds feel like the longest of Shiro’s life. Only the gentle lapping of waves against the pontoons fills the silence between the three of them, Shiro not even daring to breathe in case it breaks the delicate balance. Keith keeps glancing from him to the shovel and back so much he can almost see the gears turning in his head, but where they’ll land he has no idea. 

When Keith moves he has to suppress a tiny gasp, every muscle in his body fighting to remain motionless as the merman reaches out and takes the spade from in front of Shiro. He turns it over, inspecting it carefully, before finally turning those piercing iris eyes on him. 

“So,” he says slowly, gaze unwavering from Shiro’s own. It’s not what he expected, more husk than he’d anticipated, an edge of steel in his expression where only uncertainty had been before. “So long as I keep this, you leave me be?”

Shiro swallows around the sudden dryness on his tongue. Despite his delicate looks there’s a toughness in the way his jaw locks and his fist grasps the handle. Keith’s not some kitten on the streets, he’s a seasoned tom. 

“Y-yeah.” He nods, pushing the plate a little closer and scooting back a bit. He doesn’t quite regret it, but now he’s worried he may have talked down to him a bit before.“I take it you’d prefer it if I left you alone now?”

Spade still in hand, Keith nods. Shiro knew to expect this, but he can’t help but feel his heart sink all the same. He sits up carefully, making sure he doesn’t make any sudden moves, and waits for Ulaz to follow suit. Ulaz rises slowly, looking to Keith unblinkingly as he takes Shiro’s offered hand. 

“I know Shiro will be good to his word to give you your space, but I hope you’ll permit me to come and go as I need. This is, after all, the only exit for the two of us.”

For a second he worries Keith might say no, but the merman just shrugs, water lapping against the sides of the pool as he drifts backwards towards the back end. “Fair enough. It is your place after all.”

Ulaz opens his mouth as if to say something else, but Keith’s gone in ripple. Shiro watches as a final few bubbles break the surface, nothing left of the merman aside from a few damp drops on the dock. Even though he’d just gotten up he could almost crawl back into bed. 

“So,” he groans, turning to Ulaz. “Out of ten, how did that go? Be honest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone's looking for some nice calming/positive pandemic media to consume, I've really enjoyed binging Kim's Convenience on Netflix and the Fake Doctors/Real Friends podcast. Great Canadian bakeoff has been another I really loved that perfectly captures the British version's spirit, but I understand if your region doesn't have it on Netflix. I've also MASSIVELY gotten into doing sudoku puzzles again as a kind of meditation/brain activity when I'm not working on things idk if anyone else has been following Simon and Mark's puzzles lately but god sometimes you just need two calm British guys talking about puzzles to help calm you down ;0;
> 
> If you've found any consumables of the media type that've been working for you lately let me know I can drop a few more of what's been on my media circuit
> 
> Also, just quickly gonna apologize for another no porn chapter. The body may want but the spirit isn't willing yet and I'm not about to give you guys some zombie smut xD


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MASSIVE UPDATE INCOMING! Sorry it took a little while to put it out, but think I finally figured out a chapter I'm happy with. It's a slower burn than I planned, but I think it's for the best. If everything goes as planned from here on out, we'll be back to merfilth in no time (:

Keith’s on edge, to say the least.

There’s no kelp, there’s barely any weed… there’s almost… nothing. Sure, there were a few scraggly patches of seagrass and more than a decent smattering of rocks and starfishes littered around the bay’s bottom, but the usual ground cover? The caves? Nothing of the sort. He’d barely managed to get a look around on the way in, hidden up in the curtain of Antok’s tentacles in the dark of night, and after Kolivan had left he’d been too worried he’d lose track of the floating box he was supposed to stay under to wander far. Now though, now he knew.

He’d struck out this morning at first light hoping to find something more engaging than the silty deposit he’d slept in, but no luck. Despite finding all manner of strange human trinkets within minutes of where he’d spent the night, something that’d usually excite him, he’d found himself returning to his starting place after making it barely half a mile. He just felt so much more exposed here, so much more out in the open that even despite Ulaz’s earlier reassurances he’d never seen another merperson here in all his visits that he couldn’t find it in himself to leave the protective shadows of the boats and docks overhead. Even just moving around those quickly became too unsettling as he started to hear the roar of motors and footsteps overhead. In the end he’d just retreated back under the cover of where he’d started, the large square dock at the end of the pier with a window of sunlit water slicing through the center until Ulaz and his mate had summoned him up to the surface. 

He wouldn’t lie. He’d been expecting it. Anyone,  _ especially _ a human, would want to get a good look at him if he was suddenly thrown into their territory. He’d come to accept it over the years, but it still didn’t make wandering eyes any easier to take, and Ulaz’s mate had been no exception. 

Keith glances up at the square of sunlight above, then back to the tool he’d been given. 

Well, at least Shiro wasn’t  _ exactly  _ how he’d expected. Sure, there had been more than a healthy amount of staring, including several times where Keith had caught him almost gawking at his fins or his face, but he hadn’t exactly tried to drag him out of the water and experiment on him either. If anything, he’d almost seemed  _ scared _ of him, like he didn’t want to approach, and when he did move it was only to push something to the edge of Keith’s reach. Being honest, he didn’t mind it that way. He wasn’t about to want a human laying their hands all over him, poking and probing as his confidence boosted (although he did have Ulaz to do that with already). 

_ Still… _ Keith sighs, flopping back into the soft, pallid ground and looking out to the deeper waters of the bay. This just… didn’t feel right. It wasn’t home, either his or Kolivan’s. It wasn’t how he liked things, wasn’t what he’d pick for himself… It wasn’t even neutral, let alone  _ his _ . Sure, this patch of silt and seastars was technically  _ ‘his hiding space’ _ for the next week, and Ulaz’s mate had even said something about keeping away from the water’s surface unless he permitted him there, but still. It wasn’t his space, it was theirs.

He could tell by the way they moved overhead of him, the soft murmurings of their voices and the occasional laughs that managed to ring down. He could tell by the way Ulaz subtly moved to Shiro’s side whenever Keith stared too long, or in how he’d persist in making his presence known to Shiro the entire time Keith was surface bound. Despite what anyone said, he was invading. Invading their space and their dynamic, putting Shiro on edge and no doubt Ulaz as well. 

Really, the next week couldn’t come soon enough. He was already bored, homesick, and missed Kolivan. Even the things he’d usually do to fill his time, garden and weave and craft, weren’t possible now, not with the lack of materials or tools. He’d been here barely half a day and already the floating human home above him felt like it was bearing down on him, looming closer, ready to press him into the sand and...

Keith blinks, squinting at the tubes and ropes that dangled from the bottom of it, then back to the ground. It  _ had  _ lowered.

Right.  _ Tides. _ They were supposed to be worse in the shallows and well… here he was, experiencing them. Just another reminder of how alien the place he was in now, and how  _ not home _ it was. He wants to be around Kolivan’s terrible taste in treasures and keepsakes, wanted to tease him, feel his arms around him.

There’s a splash above him as a great dark shadow cuts through the sunlight filtering through. Keith’s fingers clutch tighter around the small tool he’d been given, but he stiffens himself before he can make his surprise anymore known. It’s Ulaz, which he should have expected, face pinched in a strange expression as he allows himself to sink down to where Keith sits.

“You did not eat your sandwich,” the shark frowns. “I had to fight off three seagulls just now for it.”

Keith blinks dumbly at him for several seconds because  _ what on cod’s blue earth is a sandwich  _ and then several more as he realizes Ulaz must mean the strange human food concoction left for him, smelling of all sorts of weird things. He’d  _ considered _ it, about an hour ago when his stomach first started growling, but he wasn’t about to become some exhibit for the human to watch from the confines of his house. “I wasn’t hungry,” he says finally, entirely aware Ulaz probably heard the growl that just left his middle. To Ulaz’s credit he doesn’t point that out, but at the same time he doesn’t exactly  _ do _ much either. Which was fairly suspicious. 

“Why are you here? Did your mate put you up to something?”

Ulaz lets out a fond snort, eyes rolling as he settles himself down on the ground belly-first to lay across from Keith. “Not at all. Though he was worried you hadn’t seemed to have eaten yet.  _ Have you? _ ”

“No, but that’s not his problem. I’m sure I’ll find something here, like…  _ those. _ ” He points to a cluster of inky mussels glued to a nearby pier post. “I’ll just pick them off and… and...” He trails off, realizing with a lurch his usual shell-cracking tools aren’t here. Sure, maybe he could try something with the spade he had now, but he somewhat doubted it would be much good for anything other than shovelling or bashing.

Ulaz stares thoughtfully at the post. “Well, I suppose they could make for a good harvest, but are you certain that’s what you want? Shiro or I could-”

“I’m fine,” he says flatly. “I’m used to having to look after myself.”

“I know you are, but you are a  _ guest _ .”

It’s Keith’s turn to roll his eyes, arms now crossed in front of him. “I  _ know. _ Even though it really was more strong-arming over the situation than anything else.” 

“It wasn-”

“Yes it was Ulaz! We both know I’d never be  _ here _ if it wasn’t for everything going on back home!” He jabs his arm out at the lackluster landscape. “You felt bad about my situation, and then that led in to your mate feeling bad and taking pity on me. This is just something we all got forced into by Sendak and a bunch of dicks and-”

“No.”

“No?” Keith sputters. “No you don’t feel bad about this whole sucky situation?”

“No,” the mershark repeats, face taking on the same serious shadows Kolivan’s does as he fixes Keith with a piercing stare. “No, I did not feel forced into offering you sanctuary. Shiro does not feel forced either, although he will admit he agreed to it before fully considering the challenges that could be involved, and for that I take responsibility. He is not at his best without coffee.”

Keith ignores the obvious bait for curiosity and stays silent. It doesn’t matter if he now wants to know what this “ _ Koffy _ ” is, he’s not going to let Ulaz break him so easily like that.

“I would also like to apologize,” Ulaz continues, “for the state of the place. Under Shiro’s home is a far cry from Kolivan’s abode, or even my own. I will fully admit I do not spend much of my time with Shiro here, and I know it is not one of the most enviable locales.”

As if to punctate his point, the roar of a boat motor sounds overhead.

“I am more than happy to help you in any way I can to make this area more hospitable for the time being. Bring in stones, build a sling, perhaps add storage here or there… Both Shiro and I understand that the harbour floor is not an enjoyable place to be.”

“No kidding.” Keith flicks away a juvenile crab from his side. “No coral, no seaweed… I guess I can at least be grateful that humans are happy with this kind of terrain so they leave the better stuff to us. What can you even do?”

Ulaz shrugs. “In all honesty, I don’t do much here specifically. Most of my time is spent with Shiro above the surface. There’s plenty of fascinating things to focus on once you move beyond the initial trepidation of being above water. For instance, have you ever heard of something called a ‘nature documentary’? Dozens of fascinating animals, all in a tiny flat box. Or bathtubs, they’re quite nice. The same with pickles or planter boxes or umbrellas or-”

“I get it,” Keith says, cutting him off with a little more aggression than he intended. Ulaz had just rattled off a list of at least a half dozen human artifacts he’d never heard of and a splinter of temptation had lodged itself in his side. At the jerk of Ulaz’s shoulders he sighed. “Sorry. I’m on edge and the lack of stuff to do isn’t helping.”

“You’re antsy.” Ulaz nods as he looks around the seabed. “I can understand that. Perhaps you’d like to spend a bit of time up in Shiro’s garden? You could probably also enjoy some other aspects of Shiro’s home if you were to ask. I’m sure he’d be open to it. Or...” he trails off, taking in the deep furrow that had split Keith’s brow, “perhaps you’d rather not.” He sighs, stretching out further. “Is there anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable? Bring you something for the evening when I return from hunting?”

_ Kolivan _ , Ulaz could bring him Kolivan. Or all his stuff, or honestly… Sendak’s head on a pike might be the best of the three, seeing as it would mean he could return home. But it had been made painfully clear at the start of all this mess that lugging all his belongings somewhere new would draw attention, and that Kolivan would be spending the better part of this week dealing with pursuers and erasing his trail to here, meaning that wasn’t happening either. 

“No, I don’t think so,” he says, rooting a finger into the soft ground. “I’ll just wait it out until I can go back. It’s just six more days.” As he says it, he wishes it was just six hours. “I’ll find something to do.”

Ulaz gives him a good long look, one that’s as much unnerving as it is sympathetic. “Well,” he says finally, “do not hesitate to let me know if that changes. And, just so you’re aware, the sky’s quite striking right now. Quite the interesting cloud patterns.”

Keith snorts. “Is this your way of trying to get me to be around your human?”

“No. But it is my way of letting you know you should take the opportunity to enjoy Shiro’s garden.” 

Keith’s about to bite back with a remark about how entertaining Ulaz’s mate is the last thing he wants to do, but Ulaz beats him to the punch. The mershark smiles at him as he pushes off the seabed, dusting traces of silt from his belly. 

“He’s out shopping right now. If you’re interested, I’d say you have at least an hour and a half before he returns home. Dinner tonight will be rockfish or mackerel, unless you have any specific requests.”

Before Keith can say anything else, Ulaz swims off with a wink and a flick of his fins. He’s fast, a heck of a lot faster than Antok or Kolivan, and before Keith knows it he’s alone once again, sitting on the harbour floor with barely ten feet of water above him. 

_ Shopping _ . What the heck was that? But… Keith glances up at the square of bright water up above him. If the human  _ was  _ away from his home, that meant he  _ could _ go up and get a look around without worrying about prying eyes. Not that he  _ needed _ to have a look around. He could totally just stay here… in the silty bottom… not examining the weird plants or the tools or seats or the sky or the-

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he mumbles, even as he kicks up to the surface. 

He emerges slowly, just his face and ears, carefully glancing around the space for any sign of motion. No sign of Ulaz’s mate, not even behind the enormous sliding plates of glass that the human would come in and out of. Keith bobs up a little further out of the water, trying to sneak a peak further into the space behind those plates, but as far as he looks there’s no sign of the human. Relieved, he finally lets his shoulders relax as he looks around. 

The space is decently sized, small, but still bigger than his own home when he’d lived alone. Glass panes occupy two sides of it, looking into the cave-like interior of the human’s house, with another blank aside from a few foggy strips of something that seem to let some light pass. There’s a set of chairs and a small table in one corner near the plate of human food left for him which a seagull is now happily devouring, and behind it a small array of human tools, some familiar, some not. All around him are boxes and bowls, each filled with different types of plants. Surface plants. Strange skinny ones that look like dying coral, long weedy ones that stayed standing without the aid of water, others fat and green and…  _ hairy _ … It’s the only way he can describe them, like they’d be soft to the touch.

He spins slowly on the spot, eyes trailing around until they finally note the wall that had been behind him. A strip of a skinny box occupies the lowest reaches of it, but the rest, climbing up and up skyward is a lattice of wood and plants. Lush, green, covering nearly the entire wall save for small scattered patches of light. Keith moves a little closer, peaking through one of the larger ones. He can just make out the shape of a boat and the dock on the other side, practically obscured by the plant’s leaves. He leans back, following the plant in its ascent, until he reaches the sky. 

“Woah…”

Ulaz was right. It was striking. The sky, something Keith rarely had a chance to look at in the first place, was a mosaic of blue and white. The bright, rich blue he always associated with it was marked with a ripple of clouds, spread like water ripples on the ocean floor. Breathtaking on its own, but the longer he stares, the more he realizes its changing,  _ evolving _ each minute. Before he knows it he’s on his back, watching the subtle shifting of sky. For now he’s forgotten about the alienness of this place, his discomfort with his proximity to humans. Right now he’s caught up in the moment, taking in a sight he’d always wondered about, but never truly seen. 

Part of his brain is thinking about what  _ else _ this could mean, if he could stare up from this place at night and see the stars, take as long as he wanted instead of stealing quick glances under a new moon. That’d come down to how things were here at night of course, but with any luck, Shiro might just be out one of those times like he was now, and Keith’d do his best to take that chance. 

* * *

The week was passing slowly, and only made slower by the palpable silence that hung between Keith and Shiro. It had been three days since Keith had arrived on Shiro’s doorstep, and ever since then Ulaz could tell something was off with Shiro. 

It hadn’t been quite the same at the start. At the start he could tell Shiro was doing his best, making every attempt he could to do something to earn a sliver of Keith’s trust, forge some kind of connection. When he’d returned the first night (with a substantial catch of mackerel) Shiro had already been in the kitchen chopping up seaweed with scissors and thawing a five-pound bag of frozen shrimp. Beside him were a half dozen bags of dried kelp and anchovies, along with four strange jars. 

_ ‘Aquarium fish food’ _ , they all read. 

“I didn’t know if he’d be interested in them,” Shiro had said, wiping his forehead and starting on pouring out a dish of dried anchovies. “The guy at the pet store said those were best for seahorses.”

Ulaz had managed to convince him Keith probably wouldn’t need strange fish flakes to stay fed, but he didn’t tell him to return them either. Instead he’d joined in with prepping dinner, and, when the time came, laid out Shiro’s assortment of offerings for Keith. The spade was still well out of sight.

That same night, after Ulaz had mentioned Keith’s sleeping arrangement, Shiro’d dug through his back room and pulled out a large blue and black sail. His friend’s  _ ‘windsurfing sail’ _ as he called it. Apparently it hadn’t been used for three years, which Shiro took to mean it wouldn’t be missed for another week. They’d hung it up (him and Keith, not Shiro) under the house with more than a fair share of bent nails, but the end result had been a makeshift sling the other merman seemed to approve of. It, paired with an abandoned crab trap Ulaz had found, seemed to brighten his spirits a bit, but when he’d said Shiro had hoped he would like it a strange look had crossed Keith’s face. 

The spade was now nailed to a beam beside him.

That was the crux of the issue. While Shiro seemed to be doing his best to give Keith a nautical mile, Keith didn’t seem to want to give an inch. More than once he caught Shiro hovering about the patio door, a new array of little bowls of food laid out on a tray, glancing nervously at the empty signaling pot. One morning it had gone on over the better part of two hours, Shiro constantly slipping downstairs from his office to check on the state of things until Ulaz finally took the tray himself and left it at the water’s edge. 

“He hates me, doesn’t he?” Shiro said once with a self-deprecating laugh as he did the dishes. Ulaz’s response had been to wrap his arms around him, ignoring the way Shiro stiffened as he brushed his middle to instead focus on his scrubbing of dirty pots. He understood where the feeling had come from, but it disheartened him all the same. 

“Not hates, but perhaps fears? Or perhaps apprehends,” he says in response to the look on Shiro’s face. “You have to remember, he’s lived a much different life from me. He was likely brought up to approach others with caution, including other merfolk. Trusting a human is likely further out of his comfort level than you’d think.”

Shiro nods slowly, putting the final dish in the drying rack. He makes a note on the pad of paper beside the sink, a list of foods that’s been changing every day. “Well, at least I think I’ve figured out a few things he’s willing to eat I can provide.” He leans back, pinching his nose as his other hand moves to find Ulaz’s. “I swear… adopting a rescue tiger would be easier than this.”

Ulaz, who’d seen his fair share of  _ Planet Earth _ , blinked at him. “That’s possible? I’d thought-”

Shiro pats his cheek, a look of fond exasperation on his face. He still seems tired, but there’s that spark now that Ulaz loves. “Not really, but it happens. If you want there’s a show I can show you about people who have no business owning tigers owning tigers.”

“I’d like that,” he smiles.

* * *

Keith, to his own credit, had been growing more confident. As the days passed he grew more familiar with Shiro’s patterns, and with that he’d been able to do more. While the human would still pass by the entry to the garden several times a day, he’d found he spent the majority of his time someplace else in the house, somewhere without a vantage point to the garden. Of course, when Ulaz was there too, that was a distraction, enough that in most cases so long as the two of them were both out of immediate sight of the garden he could usually be confident that Ulaz’s mate wasn’t going to peeking out from behind a wall to study him. Which meant he could steal some moments in the odd space that was the garden. 

He’d spent quite a bit of time studying the various plants in there. Aside from the wall climber and the spikey, hairy plants a lot of the things in there had seemed… well… almost dead. Stiff and brown and just nothing like lush weed or kelp he was used to. Then again, it wasn’t like all these plants were in that great of a place. They weren’t even surrounded by water. He’d tried scooping some salt water in his palms up and watering one of the grassy shoots, but it hadn’t seemed to have done much to help. Harm maybe, if the browning tips were anything to go by. He’d left it be after that, save for the time he’d done something to the knob in the corner and caused the rubbery green snake to writhe across the wood and spray water every which way. 

He hadn’t surfaced for a day and a half after that episode, Ulaz appearing some time later and doing something to calm the thing’s attack. He’d agreed not to tell Shiro unless the human asked. Keith had no idea if he had, but he didn’t exactly want to know if he did.

He had found some other, less dangerous things of interest though. Some small tools in various shapes and sizes, a large metal bucket like thing with three handles on it, two arches, one a long pointy snout that would rain water out of it when he tipped it in a certain way. That one he’d kept for storing things, along with several other small red clay pots. There was more though, that he was interested in. Stuff on the other side of the pane of glass that divided his space from the human’s, shiny and intricate and covered in small lights and symbols. There was a small plank covered in small buttons he was itching to touch, but the threat of being spotted by the human was enough to keep him out of there. For now he’d just have to deal with what he could get his hands on from the garden and the surrounding seabed (a substantial portion of which included drinking containers, small nets, and tinted miniature eye shields). It was… different. Not bad per say, just… different.

A small relief had been Shiro’s abandoning of offering strange human foods. Not that what he was offering now wasn’t still odd, but at least it was familiar. Tiny fish with all the moisture sucked out of them, shrimp the size of his fingernail that were pink and shell-less instead of their carapaced selves. Once or twice there’d been an array of different seaweeds covered in strange beige egg-like things, but after a few more days the human seemed to have wised up and stopped adding the…  _ nutty? _ little eggs. Once or twice he did lay out other things, small balls so sour Keith had spit them out and strangely crunchy fish skin (he’d eaten that, albeit with suspicion), but by and large he kept to the same core items, avoiding any opportunities for the human to drug him with the unfamiliar. Again… he could of course always just drug Ulaz and hand him over to science, but if Ulaz and Thace were correct in the idea that Shiro  _ did _ consider Ulaz his mate, well… if push came to shove and he  _ had _ to hand over a merman, who would Shiro pick out of the two of them?

“Trust me, that’s the furthest thing from Shiro’s mind,” Ulaz says one afternoon, tip of his tail dangling in the water as he sits on the deck’s edge, large fingers trying to fit themselves in a small orange and white package. “He has much more pressing things to deal with.”

“Like?” Keith had propped himself up on a piece of wood from the garden he’d dragged into the water, allowing himself to be concealed from the entryway’s view by Ulaz’s frame. As much as he was trying his best to stay as far away from him as possible, he  _ might _ have at least  _ some _ interest in what humans actually did.

“Well, work for one,” Ulaz shrugged, extracting several small orange shapes from the bag. “He’s in the middle of something called a  _ jeeological survey _ . He has to look at a large quantity of data about the Earth and determine the most likely places where natural gas will be.”

“Natural gas?” Keith frowns. “What makes gas natural?”

“You know, I’m not quite sure. I could let him know you asked, and-”

“Nevermind,” he says, slipping more into the water. “I’m not  _ that _ curious.”

Ulaz pauses, one of the little orange things – shaped like a tiny fish Keith now realizes – stopped inches from his lips. He inspects Keith for a moment, before letting his hand fall down to his lap. 

“I know you have your reasons to be cautious around him, but believe me when I say he has absolutely no ill will towards you. Maybe a little curious,  _ definitely _ a bit anxious,” Ulaz frowns, crunching on several of the bright orange fish shapes, “but the last thing he wants to do is upset you.”

Keith shrugs. “Well, if he just keeps doing what he’s doing now it’ll be fine.” Which was true. Their little arrangement where Shiro prepared him food but otherwise stayed out of his space was working for him. As far as he’d been able to tell, the human hadn’t set foot in the garden once since Keith had taken his spade, and he liked it that way. It was safe.

“You’re not… interested in interacting with him at all?”

“Nope,” Keith says, popping the  _ p.  _ “I’m good.”

Ulaz frowns. “You’re sure? You’re not even a smidgen interested in talking to him or getting to know him? You like human creations quite a bit, Shiro would be a perfect source for you to consult and introduce you to them.”

It’s Keith’s turn to frown. It’s not that Ulaz’s point is entirely wrong, it's the implications of it. Opening up to Shiro like that would leave him more vulnerable, and vulnerability wasn’t something he was looking for right now. 

“You know why I’m not interested in that,” he says, snippier than he meant to be. “I’ve already got enough to worry about under the sea, I don’t need more above it too. Besides,” he shoves the plank away, drifting backwards until he bumps against the box housing the climbing plant. A faux-jasmine Ulaz had said. “I’m only here another three days. After that I go back to Kolivan and I’m never going to see him again. There’s no point in putting in the effort for that kind of thing.”

Ulaz blinks softly at him, slowly chewing on one, then two, then three more of the little orange things Keith’s getting progressively more curious about. Finally he stops, fins morphing into feet as he rises to stand. 

“Well, I know Shiro is willing to put in the effort. If you change your mind, I’m sure he’ll meet you halfway.” He picks up the package of snacks, a few pieces tumbling out. Keith eyes them quietly, until Ulaz stoops down to collect them, smiling at Keith’s flushing face as he catches him in the act. “And I’m sure, if you work with him, he’d be more than happy to let you have some goldfish.”

* * *

Ulaz and Shiro are curled up on the couch, a documentary about ship building playing on the TV. There’s a bowl of popcorn and a half empty bag of shrimp chips spilled across the not-exclusively-for coffee table half forgotten as they watch the old man on screen describe why a certain propeller was the biggest innovation ever in marine travel. 

As much as he was interested at first in the topic, Ulaz’s mind is starting to waver. As it turns out motor boats are not as special as he thought. Once you understood the basics they were all more or less the same, despite what the people on the TV were insisting. He could tell Shiro had tuned it out long ago, settling into his chest and half-dozing, half listening as the two-hour long program stretched on into the final 45 minutes. He was fairly certain Shiro’d be asleep by the end of it, drifting off early like he had been since returning from his voyage.

The narrator had just begun to talk about the finer details of fish hatches when he feels Shiro stir, the human staring up at him with surprising alertness. “Ulaz?” Shiro asks, silence stretching on between them so long Ulaz thinks he should break it. “Can I ask you something?”

He nods, pushing the remote away. There’s something in Shiro’s voice that has him questioning himself, suddenly wondering if he should be doing something with his hands. Something off.

“Are you… different? From other merfolk.”

It catches him off guard, the question. He frowns, brow tensing as he tries to pick apart the hidden question there. He flicks through categories in his head, trying to find the one Shiro wouldn’t name himself. “It depends. If you compare me by species, then yes, I’m different. As you’re aware there’s quite the variety among us, the largest being between cetaceous and gilled individuals. Ability-wise, there’s nothing that particularly sets me apart from others with similar genetics, and my personality, while it’s own, likely isn’t perfectly unique either.”

Shiro’s jaw sets deeper against the skin of his neck, gaze lowered to Ulaz’s chest. “Ah… well…”

“That wasn’t the answer you wanted, was it?” Ulaz props himself up on an elbow as Shiro shakes his head. “Shiro,” he says, hand squeezing the human’s side. “I can tell something is bothering you, and while I’m sure I can unravel it over time, I can help address it far faster if you ask me directly.” He waits until Shiro flicks him a sheepish glance before speaking. “This is related to Keith, is it not?”

Shiro groans, splaying out so his face is smashed into Ulaz’s front. His voice, mashed, comes from the confines of Ulaz’s pectorals. “He still won’t let me approach him. It’s been five days Ulaz,  _ five days!  _ I thought by now he’d at least maybe let me go into the garden once, even if it was to just drop off food, but I haven’t even seen him! Not since that morning and those few times he surfaced a ducked back down as soon as he saw me. I’m just…” he sighs, breath hot on Ulaz’s skin. “I’m just wondering if it's supposed to be this hard. If it’ll always be this hard.”

Ulaz strokes the back of Shiro’s neck in comfort. “Everyone is different. There were reasons why we fell into place as we did, just as there are reasons why you and Keith have yet to bond. Even among merfolk Keith is a special case. To be frank, if he  _ was _ less cautious I’d be very surprised.”

“But what if he’s not a special case?” Shiro’s propped his chin up, staring directly into Ulaz’s eyes. “What if you are? What if I never connect with another merperson? What if it’s just always you and me and never anybody else? What if we’re just too weird and different for anyone to be around us?”

“You’re unique, but I don’t…  _ oh. _ ” Ulaz’s tongue locks up, the meaning behind Shiro’s words finally hitting him. Suddenly all Shiro’s fussing these past few days takes on a much stronger meaning. 

“You’re concerned we’ll never be accepted by the other’s circles.”

Shiro nods, whole body deflating with a sigh. “I love you Ulaz, I really do, but part of that means I want to share more of our lives with each other. Spend time with you around other people, learn more about you from them, see different sides of you… but I can’t do that. I can’t breath in water like you can. I can’t scuba dive, even if I keep thinking about it more and more, that’s months… years of training away from even being an option. And I can’t share you here on land, at least, not with my friends. Not without putting you at risk. And now, despite trying my best to figure out what to do, in the one place where I can actually do anything, I can’t even get another merperson to say five words with me.”

The reality of Shiro’s words are sinking into him, along with the gravity of what Shiro must be feeling. Frustration. Insecurity. Doubt. While the entity that was  _ them _ had been natural,  _ easy _ even, it had existed in a void until this point, the two of them sharing the sanctity of Shiro’s home. But taken out of that void, subjected to the different tides and weathers they were used to, would the other thrive? Up until now it had been largely leaning towards Shiro’s court, a human space, safe for him to explore, but now it had been shaken, a piece of Ulaz’s world thrown into the mix. And although Ulaz had long since adapted to both, Shiro was now struggling. 

He hugs Shiro to his chest, a life preserver in this new sea Shiro’s found himself in, fingers combing through his hair. “We’re complicated, to say the least. While I’ve heard stories or rumours I’ve never known anyone who ever established a working relationship like ours, but that does not mean it can’t be done.”

“I know,” Shiro says, voice small and muffled. “And I know I’m my own worst enemy right now. It’s just… hard sometimes, coming to grips with limits. When you asked me if Keith could stay here I was nervous, yeah, but also kind of excited. There’s so much more about your world I want to know about, especially your friends.”

The whisper of a smile tries to make itself known on Ulaz’s face, even as he pushes down the urge to comfort Shiro with the admission that Keith was more acquaintance than friend. Even though he was working on garnering Keith’s trust, albeit much more easily than Shiro was, now didn’t feel like the right time to suggest he was still working at befriending him too. “And you will get to know more, even if right now it feels hard.”

“If Keith ever gives me the time of day,” Shiro sighs. “Which honestly, at this rate I don’t think he will. And as much as I know I shouldn’t let it bug me, it does. It makes me question if I should even be trying the amount I am or if I should be preparing to take a heck of a lot more L’s. One loss isn’t the end of the world in the grand scheme of things, but when it’s your first try, it definitely hits harder.”

Ulaz nods, remembering his first few crushing instances of rejection. How’d they’d impacted how he approached the next. “There’s no denying it does,” he says, tickling at Shiro’s ears. He can feel Shiro’s nose wrinkle where it rests. “But you’re forgetting something.”

“What?” Shiro’s sat up, mouth twisted up as he stops Ulaz from continuing to tease him. 

“You’re not doing this alone, and if my understanding of human sports metaphors are correct, not every merperson I introduce you to will be the swerveball that is Keith. Thace, for instance, I feel he’ll have a much easier shell for you to crack.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely. He’s likely half open already quite honestly, based on how often he will ask how you are.” He settles back into the couch, hand stroking the small of Shiro’s back. “I know you’re struggling with the disconnect of your expectations and reality of interacting with Keith, but it isn’t the be all end all. Not all of us can be  _ homer-runs  _ after all.”

Shiro chuckles, climbing up Ulaz until they’re inches from a kiss. “ _ Home run _ , actually, but message received.” There’s a little twinkle there in Shiro’s eyes, a lightness that hadn’t been at the start of the conversation as he leans forwards to kiss Ulaz. As much as he knew his work wasn’t done, he knew he’d done something right. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, whenever you need me.”

Shiro’s eyes rake over Ulaz’s body, lip tucked behind his teeth as his smile broadens. “Speaking of home runs, what do you say we ditch the movie and see if we can manage one of our own? Pretty sure we can round third base if we start now.”

Ulaz’s brows arch. “I would say you have my attention.”

* * *

It’s cold when he wakes. Colder than usual, as if the damp of the water has wormed its way between the wood of the house and snuck into the air itself. It’s the type of cold that leaves Ulaz sluggish, wishing to be close to a deep sea vent and soaking in the warmth of the nearby water and sand, current washing over his gills so he can fully relax and let the feeling take over him. He shifts in the tub, eying the tap with interest, but he decides against it for now. Filling the tub with hot water would require draining of what was already there, and as Shiro has cautiously pointed out before, doing too much of that would drive his water bills up, so Ulaz lets himself wake up slowly, shifting his tail and stretching his arms until the idea of a hot cup of dashi is enough to motivate him to move. 

He climbs out of the tub carefully, making sure to avoid the mess of blankets and pillows beside him as best he can. Once he’s sure he’s cleared it he bends down and kisses the single strip of skin poking out of the pile, right below the sleep-messed set of bangs. 

“Good morning,” he says, drawing back as Shiro squirms and blinks eelishly up at him. “Sleep well?”

Shiro’d taken to alternating between sleeping on his bed and the bathroom floor, something he stubbornly defended after the first night when Ulaz had suggested he’d be more comfortable on the mattress. Although he was quite sure Shiro never slept as well on the floor as he could, the charm of him worming closer to the tub to grab Ulaz’s hand or prevent him from getting up was enough to keep him silent on the matter. 

“What time is it?” Shiro groans, face emerging from the blanket bundle like a sand-eel and his nose wrinkling in the cold. Feels too cold to be time to get up.”

“A little after 7:30,” he says, glancing at the clock Shiro’d left on top of the hamper. “About time to wake up.”

“Five more minutesss,” Shiro huffs, and his face is once again buried in fabric.

“I’ll start the kettle.”

One eye peeks out. “Can you boil enough for oatmeal too?”

Ulaz knows where this is heading and can’t help but smile. “I’ll heat up some apple sauce as well.”

“You’re a godsend,” Shiro says, worming about the floor like a sea cucumber until he’s nuzzling Ulaz’s thigh. “I’ll be down in five.”

He makes his way downstairs (hands firmly planted on wall and railing as he does), half considering donning one of the sweaters in addition to the set of pants Shiro had found for him to stave off the cold. The water and sky outside are different but equally bleary shades of grey, meaning any niggling need to strike out early today are quashed. He’ll spend a nice slow start to the morning with Shiro, and hopefully leave in a few hours when the outdoors is more inviting. 

He digs out the instant oats and applesauce and cinnamon from the cupboards, along with a healthy handful of bonito flakes from the package. He chews on a few as he fills the kettle, clicks down the small tab that starts the magic of electric heating, and glances around. 

He nearly drops the bag of flakes. 

The garden is blanketed in a thick cover of white, the deck and planters damped in no less than three inches of the stuff. It’s everywhere, clinging to branches, piled high on the little fir tree, even spread across the table like a massive puck of rice. In fact, the only place where the garden  _ isn’t  _ coated in the stuff is the water, in which an extremely confused and somewhat distressed looking Keith floats. 

Carefully, and with a spatula for protection, Ulaz pulls the patio door open a crack. He presses the spatula against the white stuff, trying to hold it back in case it dares to try and invade the house too. 

“Keith, are you alright?” His voice has a warble to it even though he’s doing his best to stay calm for the other.  _ What in the seven seas was this stuff? _

“Uh…” is Keith’s very eloquent reply. “I don’t know? Do you...”

Ulaz shakes his head, opening the door a bit more until he can fully peak his face through it. “I have no idea. Is it… have you?” He prods at with the spatula, darting back as the white stuff sticks to it in big puffy flakes. 

“It’s not… human is it? There’s no way that your-”

“Shiro wouldn’t,” Ulaz frowns, inspecting the bits stuck to the spatula. They were slowly sliding down in, the strange crystalline makeup shifting as it slid. It reminded him of sand, except it was nothing like sand. Sand didn’t clump like this. “Besides… he fell asleep before me. He wouldn’t have had a chance to do this.”

“Then… it could be another human! One that knows about us, one that has bad motives!” Keith’s fidgeting now, gnawing on a finger as he twists and turns in the absolute centre of the pool. “I bet this is the only place with it. I bet it’s some kind of poison, or some paralytic, or-”

“Ulaz why are you crouched there? Is the kettle still-  _ oh…” _

Ulaz just catches Keith stiffening as he turns around to see Shiro, bundled up in sweatpants and a hoodie, scratching his middle. On his face is a strange look of part surprise, part something else, but Ulaz has no idea how much of that is from an absence of coffee. What it does say though, is that whatever this white stuff is, it’s nowhere near enough of a shock to elicit something from him beyond mild confusion. 

“It  _ snowed! _ Wow… it almost never does here, would you look at that!” Shiro crouches down beside him, shoving the door open further, and to Ulaz’s absolute horror, scoops up a handful in his bare palms. 

“Shiro!” he exclaims, swatting at the mass with the spatula, “you shouldn’t be touching it it could be dangerous”

Shiro blinks at him blank-faced, before breaking down into a fit of laughter. Ulaz and Keith can only stare at him and watch as Shiro tries to compose himself, one hand still holding a mound of the stuff while the other wipes away beads of tears.

“Sorry, sorry. I just… I can’t believe it, especially your reaction, but it makes sense! This is the first time you’re seeing snow, isn’t it?”

“Snow?” Ulaz glances at the blanket on the deck, then the ball in Shiro’s hand. “You  _ know _ what this is? And it’s not…”

“No, it’s not dangerous,” Shiro smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners as he palms the stuff. “It’s just rain, frozen in a special way.”

“Rain…  _ frozen... _ ” Ulaz glances at the ground again. He knew what ice was certainly. That was frozen water, but this was  _ nothing like that _ . He frowns as he jabs the spatula back in, watching the  _ snow _ move in a distinctly un-icelike way. He trusted Shiro not to lie to him, but at the same time it was hard to believe.

“I could get into everything about the special conditions needed in the atmosphere and microscopic water droplets and seed crystals and supersaturation in clouds but-” Shiro drops most of his handful to the ground leaving only a small puff that he stirs around on his palm with his finger, “-this should get things across the easiest. Give it a little heat and a bit of agitation, and voila!” He pushes his palm forwards, showing Ulaz the tiny puddle that’d formed from the dissolving snow. “Water. That’s all it is. Here...”

Ulaz hesitantly lets Shiro pour the small pool into his skin, feeling the familiar cooling relief of rehydration. Under Shiro’s eye, he slowly reaches down to prod at the accumulation on the ground. It was cool. Fuzzy almost. But it still had the same hydrating effect. 

“So it’s just special rain,” he says, carefully scooping up a small handful and juggling it. He had to admit, it had a pleasant feeling to it. From the corner of his eye he caught Keith sneaking closer, approaching the accumulation on the lip of the dock. “But why is it like this? And why have I never seen it before?”

Shiro shrugs, starting to form a larger ball himself. “I’m not an expert in meteorology or anything but the short version is that sometimes solids made from the same liquid can have different properties, like how graphite and diamonds look totally different but have the exact same building blocks, or glass and sand. Totally different transparencies and strengths. In snow’s case there’s a crystal structure that allows for air pockets that make it puffy and able to shift around instead of just existing in big sheets. As for why you’ve never seen it before, it’s not super common around here since we don’t usually have the right weather patterns. That, and the fact that as soon as snowflakes hit salt water, they melt.”

There’s a small noise and a  _ bloop _ , and both Shiro and Ulaz turn to catch a set of ripples spreading out over the inner pool, a piece of the snow ledge by the edge missing.

“Uh… I guess Keith’s testing that,” he blinks. Ulaz chuckles softly, focusing back on the loaf-sized egg shape Shiro had made on the deck. 

“And what exactly is that?”

“Oh,” Shiro smiles, a bit of color creeping into his face. “It’s an old tradition from when I was a kid. They’re called  _ yukiusagi… _ snow rabbits. Me and my brother would make them the first time it snowed every winter. It’s just a fun thing to do with snow, shaping it and making it into something you like.”

“Yukiusagi…” he says slowly, beginning to mound snow himself. “They’re not real rabbits though?” He’d learned a month or so ago about Shiro’s affection for the small creatures, but had never seen on beyond a photo or video on a screen.

“Nah. Just a snow craft that’s easy for kids. There’s other ones too, like snowmen and snow forts and pretty much anything you can think of, but those usually need a lot more snow. Rabbits just need a little. You make an egg-shape like this and add little eyes and ears with leaves and berries. Like this!” Shiro leans out, just barely managing to reach the closest bush in a planter without tumbling into the snow. He snags two leaves off it and sticks them near one of the ends of the mound. “See? Ears.”

Ulaz plucks two himself and adds them to his own mound. One immediately falls out.

“Here, you’ve got to pack it more.” Ulaz finds Shiro taking his hands and guiding them to his pile, his small palms pressing on the backs of his hands to force the snow together. They’re cool and damp, Shiro’s fingertips almost colder than his own. He finds himself giving way, enjoying the feeling as Shiro guides his sculpting until his bump is the same smooth, compact shape as Shiro’s.

“Try now,” Shiro says, a hand resting on Ulaz’s back as he stands. “I’m going to start the coffee and grab some dried cherries.”

He adds the leaves back in as the sounds of Shiro tinkering with the kettle and cups fills the house. They’re a little more lopsided than Shiro’s, but still good in their own right. Like this, it almost reminds him of those tiny white sea slugs with dark tipped antennae, only much bigger. He’s in the process of adjusting the ears, patting a bit more snow here and there, when a small splash comes from the water. Keith, peering out at what he’s doing.

“Snow rabbits,” he says, lifting up his carefully to show Keith. “Shiro says he always made them as a child. Apparently snow is a good medium for sculpting.”

Keith prods hesitantly at a mound near him, glancing between it and Ulaz. “And handing it is okay?”

“A bit cold, but actually quite nice.” He sets the rabbit down, beginning to pack another ball. He likes the way it starts out soft, then slowly compacts tighter and tighter in his hands. “There’s a moistness to it that feels particularly good. It’s also a good deal more workable than any sand or clay I’ve handled. You might enjoy it, missing your usual working tools.”

For quite some time Keith remains motionless, staring at the expanse of snow in front of him. Ulaz takes no heed, calmly forming a second ball and then a third. When he’s on his fourth, he hears a little gasp and looks up. Keith has a small handful of snow in one palm and is gently pressing it with two fingers, eyes wide and unblinking as he manipulates it more and more. Silently, so as not to disturb him, Ulaz watches as Keith slowly works himself up to adding a third, then fourth finger, until he’s using both palms to press and smooth the snow into a perfect ball. When he stops, eyes finally unlocking from it to look up at him, Ulaz can’t help but smile at the sheer wonder in them. He nods encouragingly, stacking his latest ball on top of another, and starts a fifth. Across the garden, Keith begins his second. 

Or… began, because as soon as Shiro returns with his coffee and the cherries Keith darts back under the cover of the deck’s lip. 

“Was that…” Shiro frowns over his cup, looking out at the ripples that mark where Keith used to be. He sighs, crouching down beside Ulaz again. “Nevermind, I got the stuff.” 

“He’ll warm in time,” Ulaz says, leaning into Shiro. After their talk the night before he can’t help but be more aware of Shiro’s experiences around Keith. “For all you know, just staying above the surface long enough for you to explain all this is a big enough step for him. Don’t let it bother you too much.”

Shiro gives him a small smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” He takes another sip from his coffee and drops a handful of dried cherries into Ulaz’s palm. “Here, give yours eyes too.” 

Ulaz complies, adding them to his first ball, then his others, until there’s a half dozen little white orbs peering up at him and Shiro. His mate lets out a chuckle. 

“Seems like you’re taking a liking to snow.”

“You could say that,” he smiles, starting on another ball. 

“You want me to show you how to make a snowman?”

“Is it anything like a rabbit?”

“Sort of. Think three rabbits, stacked on top of each other and decorated.”

He looks at Shiro. He’s grinning, mischievous little twinkle in his eye as he sips his coffee.

“How about we do both?”

Before he knows it, their little collection of snow figures has grown into a village. A half dozen rabbits litter the door mat, some solo, some together, some stacked. There are two small snowmen, the tallest of which reaches just beyond Shiro’s knees while the other’s a few inches smaller. They’d decorated the two of them with carrots and rocks and dried fruit to look like each other, his own snow duplicate complete with ears and markings and Shiro’s wearing a scarf and a napkin for a hair ruff. They’d started on a shark as well, a chubby thing with stumpy fins and leaf teeth, but they’d stopped before making the tail when Shiro’s phone had chimed it was time for him to work. Ulaz had retreated back upstairs with him, splaying out in the bathtub to read a book on birds as Shiro made it through his morning workload. 

He’s just finished reading about something called a chickadee when Shiro calls to him from the other room. He glances at the clock on the counter. 11:30. Close enough to noon for Shiro to be thinking about lunch and not just a third cup of coffee. He stretches and makes his way out of the tub, pulling on a bathrobe instead of some other clothing article. Although Shiro didn’t have much issue with him being bare, he couldn’t ignore the fact that it certainly distracted him more. Best to cover up if Shiro was to get back to work after this. 

Shiro beats him down the stairs, of course, both their empty mugs in hand. Although he seems tired, he’s smiling, stretching his neck side to side as he watches Ulaz make his way down. 

“Seems like a good day for something warm, right? How do you feel about ramen?”

“Depends.” 

“I have that shrimp flavour. And I have those fish cakes you like I can add to it.”

“I’m coming!” Ulaz shoots him a dramatic pout as he clambers the rest of the way down. “Just making sure I don’t break my neck.”

“You really make me reconsider the whole lack of runners,” Shiro chuckles, making his way towards the kitchen. “Maybe I should look into getting some afterall. They’ll be a pain to vacuum, but might be worth it for you. Carpet might be easier for you than laminate.”

“Is there anything that can replace stairs outright?” he grouses, but the tone in his voice makes it clear he’s far from upset. “A ramp or something?”

“Eh, elevator maybe, but that’s  _ way  _ out of my price range. I guess if money was no object though you’d want me to have some kind of water column wouldn’t you? Some tube you could just swim up and-”

Shiro stops dead at the edge of the dining table, eyes fixed off into space. Ulaz comes up behind him, hand going to his shoulder.

“Is everything alright? Did you-”

But he doesn’t need to ask anymore. He can see what has Shiro’s attention clear as day. 

The garden that had been a nearly undisturbed field of white had been transformed, an entire half of the deck scooped of snow. In its place was an array of figures, both big and small. Two small balls with what looked like mussel shells sticking out from them in something that must be Keith’s approximation of rabbits. A half dozen little snowy anemones, their stubby little fingers stuck mid-wave in the air. A snowman, half finished, but with eight trunks rising from around it like morays peeking out of holes. Even without features, he knew who’s likeness it captured. 

“Seems he’s been busy,” he says quietly, glancing at the set of hands just barely visible to the side of the snowman. 

“Really busy,” whispers Shiro, making no attempts to move. “I… I’d never have guessed he’d get so into it. He always seems so skittish with things.”

“Things he’s not sure about yes, but I suppose now he’s made his mind up about snow.” Ulaz watches as Keith adjusts the shape of one of the tentacles, moving the tip more sideways. “From what I’ve heard from Kolivan, he likes working with his hands. Usually makes all manner of weavery and carvings when they’re together.”

“Usually?”

“When he has his tools,” he sighs, crossing past the patio doors and making his way to the kettle. “We decided against bringing them with him, in case it made it more obvious we were moving him. He has a knife and some of his other basics, but nowhere near his full collection.”

Shiro nods, but says nothing. He stays there, at the edge of the window, watching Keith work as Ulaz boils the water. He stays watching, even as Ulaz takes two bowls of instant noodles out of the cupboard and fills them, adding a handful of fish cakes to his and an egg to Shiro’s. It’s not until the smell of salty broth and a fresh bodum of coffee rouse him that he moves from his place, quickly skirting the window and dashing over to Ulaz’s side. Even then though, his eyes are fixed back on the slivered view of the garden and the corner of Keith’s sculpture. 

“You’re thinking about something, aren’t you?”

Shiro nods, lips pursed. “Debating, more like it.”

Ulaz slides a mug of coffee over, slowly swirling powdered fish stock into his own cup. He takes his time, watching as the water takes on a golden-grey colour, letting Shiro mull at his own pace. He takes a sip and stretches out across the counter, looking out at where Shiro’s gaze is still fixed. Outside, Keith is frowning at his snow sculpture, a small pile of pebbles scattered on the wood in front of him. Shiro’s frowning too.

“What’s the worst consequence? Realistically speaking.”

Shiro sighs, shaking his head and spinning around to root through his cupboards. “You’re right. You’re always right, you know it?”

“I’m not. But in this case, I think I am and I do.” He takes another sip, watching as Shiro fills a few small dishes with food and sets them on a tray. “Do you want any help?”

“No, it’s fine.” Shiro straightens up, deep breath filling his body. “I need to stop second guessing things and not being me. Starting now.”

He nods, stepping aside for Shiro and trailing behind him to the door. Something other than broth is flooding through him, warming his core. Pride. “Go. Be you.”

Shiro shoots him one final look, his bit lip the only sign of his apprehension, then he’s opening the door, stepping out into the garden for the first time in days. 

“Keith?” 

Ulaz watches as the other merman stiffens instantly, shocked at Shiro’s sudden appearance. The two remain still, eyes locked on the other, until Shiro makes the first move. He picks his way carefully across the deck, making his way to the other side of the edge where Keith stays. Slowly, with purpose, he sets the tray down and kneels. 

“Here,” he says, gently sliding a bowl across the wood towards Keith. “I know you don’t like human foods much, but I thought you might want these. For your octopus.”

Keith doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t flee either. He stays frozen, watching as Shiro sets another two dishes down. 

“Cheerios, if you want to add suction cups, and some dried fruit if you want something more workable for eyes. I can get you a carrot or two if you want to add a nose like how Ulaz and I did. The rest’s just your usual favourites. No hard feelings if you don’t feel like using them.”

For a second they both stay like that, the sound of lapping water the only noise between. Then Shiro sighs and stands, brushing snow off his knees. “I’ll leave you be for now. Let Ulaz know if you want anything else.”

He makes it halfway back to the door when Keith speaks. 

“Thanks. For the stuff, that is.”

Ulaz watches as colour rushes to Shiro’s cheeks, eyes swelling wider, the little gasp he holds back. He can tell it takes Shiro everything to keep from reacting, sucking in a deep breath as he turns to face Keith once more. 

“You’re welcome.”

Ten seconds and ten steps later, he’s jumping into Ulaz’s arms, no longer fighting back a grin out of sight.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're all doing well, hope you're looking after yourself, and hope you're making time for fun! I know I'm a bit behind on replying to comments, but if you have any life updates you want to share feel free to let me know, hearing from you guys whenever I update on how you're doing always makes me happy c,: Here's to seeing you all again soon!

**Author's Note:**

> So, without fully giving away /exactly/ what I want to delve into with this work, I figured I'd let you guys know what I'm planning to try and include in this instalment. There's still definitely some spaces in the timeline where I haven't locked in anything, so if you think of something you don't see here that might tickle my interest, I'm all ears!
> 
> Defs being included:  
> \- Shiro and Keith bonding (duh)  
> \- Shiro dealing with shark pups in him  
> \- Keith being impatient for spring and his turn (and that eventual turn)  
> \- the eventuality of Hance finding out 
> 
> Stuff I'm not sure I'll put in this or another one shot, but WILL get to:  
> \- Shiro's twin/Antok getting it on  
> \- the actual pup having
> 
> Pure crack I know I shouldn't put in but also... I can't keep to myself:  
> \- Keith ordering a custom sex doll with Shiro's credit card and that becomes the perfect decoy to fool any and all other merman interested in mating with him. Yeah. I told you it was dumb and pure crack.


End file.
